ˈsea-mark
1. The boundary or limit of the flow of the sea. lit. and fig. † full sea mark, the limit of high tide.
| 1485 Malory Arthur v. v. 168 And so weltryng and walowynge they rolled doune the hylle tyl they came to the see marke. 1572 in 9th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. i. 277/2 This yere the kaiye on southesyde..was builded by the towne vnder full seamarcke. 1637 Rutherford Lett. clxxiii. (1862) I. 406 As the houses of sand within the sea-mark, which the children of men are building. 1731 T. Boston Mem. (1899) 72 And here, I think, was the full sea-mark of my perplexing circumstances aforesaid. 1758 Borlase Nat. Hist. Cornw. 51 A few violent repeated storms should..raise those sands above full Sea-mark. 1818 Shelley Rev. Islam i. xvi, On the bare strand Upon the sea-mark a small boat did wait. 1851 Mrs. Browning Casa Guidi Wind. 18 We must look to it to excel as ye And bear our age as far, unlimited By the last sea-mark! |
2. a. A conspicuous object distinguishable at sea which serves to guide or warn sailors in navigation.
| 1566 Act 8 Eliz. c. 13 That the foresayd Mayster Wardens..of the Trinytie Howse..shall..set up suche and so many Beakons and Signes of the Sea..for Sea Markes. 1590 Spenser F.Q. ii. x. 6 The venturous Mariner..For safeties sake that same his sea-marke made, And namd it Albion. 1617 Moryson Itin. i. 119 Upon the top of this Mountaine was a Tower,..upon which a light was hung for a sea-marke. 1778 Eng. Gazetteer (ed. 2) s.v. Stoke, The steeple is a sea⁓mark to ships that pass the mouth of the Orwell. 1843 Arnold Hist. Rome III. 284 Two solitary pillars still remain, and serve as a seamark to guide ships into the great harbour. 1877 Tennyson Harold ii. i, If I caught them, they should hang Cliff-gibbeted for sea-marks. |
| attrib. 1885 Ruskin Pleas. Eng. 88 The sea-mark isle, Heligoland. |
b. fig. and in
fig. context, now
esp. with allusion to
Shakes. Oth. v. ii. 271.
| 1589 Pasquil's Return A iij b, I desire not to cast it out as a block..for any to stumble at,..but as a Sea-marke to discouer the quicksands of newe Religions. 1607 Shakes. Cor. v. iii. 74 Like a great Sea-marke standing euery flaw, And sauing those that eye thee. 1693 O. Heywood Best Entail vi. Wks. 1826 IV. 473 Wicked parents are set before you as sea-marks, to avoid, not as landmarks, to guide you. 1739 Cibber Apol. (1756) II. 43 A Sea-mark of danger to future managers in their theatrical course of government. 1932 Proc. Brit. Acad. XVII. 57 He [sc. Virgil] fixed for the imagination of the Roman race..the limit of its aspiration and achievement, the very sea-mark of its utmost sail. 1955 Times 11 May 11/4 Often they even marked, though not the very butt and seamark of his utmost sail, at least his objective for the time being. |