seaport
(ˈsiːpɔət)
[port n.1]
A harbour or port on the sea-coast; a town or city on such a harbour. = port n.1 1 and 2.
| 1596 Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. I. 12 It hes thir tounes Kircoubrie, Wigtoune, and the quhyt Case, al the thrie gude seyportes. 1712 E. Cooke Voy. S. Sea 388 We shall pass by the Sea-Ports, having mention'd them in the precedent Chapter. 1735 Berkeley Querist §266 Wks. 1871 III. 378 The sea-ports of Galway, Limerick, Cork. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. iii. I. 335 Bristol, then the first English seaport. 1874 Green Short Hist. iv. §3 (1882) 184 The great merchant city..sank..into a petty seaport. |
b. attrib., esp. in seaport town (cf. port-town 2).
| 1705 Proclam. 18 Jan. in Lond. Gaz. No. 4090/1 Until they Arrive at some Sea Port-Town. 1838 Dickens Nich. Nick. xxii, Portsmouth is a seaport town. 1909 Edin. Rev. Oct. 391 Apollo meets the Seaman at a seaport tavern. |