ˈsea-froth
† 1. Seaweed. Obs. rare. (In quots. tr. L. alga.)
| c 1440 Pallad. on Husb. iv. 329 Other, so doluen, kesteth seefroth yn. Ibid. 335 Oildregges ek is good, outher see⁓froth. Ibid. 621 Sefroth the ferthe is go To honge vp. |
2. The froth or foam of the sea; sea-foam.
| 1582 Stanyhurst æneis i. (Arb.) 22 Neptun..glyds on the seafroth, with wheales of gould wagon. 1825 J. Neal Bro. Jonathan I. 272 A little white foam, like sea froth. 1895 W. B. Yeats Poems (1899) 235 Wool whiter than sea froth. |
| attrib. 1643 A. Ross Mel Helic. 86 Fair Venus With her sea-froth countenance. |
† 3. (See
quot.)
Obs. rare—0.
Cf. sea-foam 2.
| 1725 Bradley's Fam. Dict., Sea-Froth or Foam; in Latin Alcyonium, in all appearance a sort of Spungy Plant found in the Sea..; some..take it to be the Scum of the Sea, which has been hardned by the Sun Beames. |
4. Meerschaum (
cf. sea-foam 3).
| 1801 T. Thomson Min. in Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) Suppl. II. 217/1 Myrsen—Seafroth. 1856 Eng. Cycl., Nat. Hist. IV. 731. |