▪ I. beach, n.
(biːtʃ)
Forms: 6– beach; also 6 bache, bayche, 7 beatch, 7–8 baich(e, 8 beech.
[Origin unknown: apparently at first a dialect word, meaning, as it still does in Sussex, Kent, and the adjacent counties, the shingle or pebbles worn by the waves. Thence the transference of the term to the place covered by ‘beach,’ was easy for those who heard such phrases as ‘to lie’ or ‘walk on the beach,’ without knowing the exact significance. The Fr. grève shows precisely the same transference. The spelling shows that the pronunciation in 16–18th c. was (beːtʃ). If OE., the type would be *bǽce. A derivation from ON. bakki ‘bank,’ which has been proposed (for sense 3), is not admissible phonologically: (cf. bache). Another conjecture would derive beach from bleach:—OE. blǽce, f. blác white, with loss of l, of which there is however no evidence.]
1. (Usually collect., formerly occas. with pl.): The loose water-worn pebbles of the sea-shore; shingle.
| c 1535 Art Suruey 28 The smooth hard beach on the Sea⁓shoares burnes to a purer white. 1538 Leland Itin. VII. 143 A Banke of baches throwen up by the Se. 1597 Gerard Herbal xxxvi. §16. 249 Rowling pebble stones, which those that dwell neere the sea do call Bayche. 1598 Hakluyt Voy. I. 355 (R.) We haled your barke ouer a barre of beach or peeble stones. 1627 Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. xii. 57 As many peeble stones or beatch as can there lie. 1721 Perry Daggenh. Beach 116 The Drift or Rolling of the Beach or Shingle along the Shore. 1875 Parish Sussex Dial. (E.D.S.) s.v. Beach, Shingle brought from the sea⁓coast is always called beach. 1884 Cole Antiq. Hastings 18 All that part between Cambridge Road and the sea is one mass of beach. |
† 2. A ridge or bank of stones or shingle.
Obs.| 1673 Ray Journ. Low C. 280 The baich or languet of land between the Haven of Messina and the Fretum Siculum. 1692 ― Discourses (1713) 8 Raising up therein a Baich or Bank of Stones as big as Towers. |
3. a. The shore of the sea, on which the waves break, the strand;
spec. the part of the shore lying between high- and low-water-mark. Also applied to the shore of a lake or large river. In
Geol. an ancient sea-margin.
(In early quotations, this sense is often doubtful: it is probably Shakespere's sense in all the five passages in which he uses
beach; though, taken by themselves, ‘stand vpon the beach’
Merch. V. iv. i. 71, ‘the Fishermen, that walk'd vpon the beach’
Lear iv. vi. 17, might as well belong to 1.)
| 1596 Shakes. (see above). 1607 ― Cor. v. iii. 58 The Pibbles on the hungry beach. 1667 Milton P.L. i. 299 On the Beach Of that inflamed sea, He stood. 1756 in Doc. Hist. State N.Y. (1849) I. 478 Upwards of 1000 French and Indians appeared upon the Beech [of Lake Ontario]. 1762 Falconer Shipwr. iii. 365 In dreadful form the curving beech appears. 1771 Pennant Tour in Scotl. 201 A little isle, in a small loch in Badenoch, was totally reversed and flung on the beach. 1830 Lyell Princ. Geol. xiii. (1850) 178 These strata passing by the name of ‘raised beaches,’ occur at moderate elevations on the coast. 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. II. i. ii. 13 Like gold-grains in the mud-beach. 1843 N. Boone Jrnl. in L. Pelzer Marches of Dragoons (1917) 189 Captain Boone..commenced his march from the beach of Grand River opposite Fort Gibson. 1880 Geikie Phys. Geog. iii. xvii. 154 The strip of sand, gravel or mud, which is alternately covered and laid bare by the rise and fall of the tidal undulation is called the beach. |
b. Naut. The shore, any part of the coastline off which a ship is at anchor; hence
on the beach, ashore; retired (
the beach = land, civilian life);
to take the beach, to go on shore leave. By extension
on the beach is used to mean ‘beachcombing, unemployed’; also (
occas.) penniless, ‘broke’.
| 1903 J. London People of Abyss xi. 127 England is always crowded with sailormen on the beach. 1915 ‘Bartimeus’ Tall Ship iv. 71 The head of the Officer of the Watch appeared... ‘Wake up, you Weary Willies. There's a boat to the beach at seven-bells.’ 1916 ‘Ward-room’ H.M.S. ii. 29 The captain and the commander had ‘taken the beach’ for the afternoon. 1923 Daily Mail 15 May 8 Hundreds of the trawlermen to-day find themselves ‘on the beach’, owing to the distressed condition of the fishing industry. 1925 ‘Bartimeus’ Great Security iii. §2. 181 Hitherto he had been accustomed to view ‘the Beach’ as an incident in his normal life, an environment that asked nothing of him and gave nothing in return. 1925 Wodehouse Let. 11 Jan. in Perf. Flea (1953) 30 The world is full of poor devils on the brink of being chucked out of jobs and put on the beach. 1935 ‘G. Orwell’ Clergyman's Daughter ii. §i. 99 You on the beach, kid?{ddd}On the bum?{ddd}What I mean to say, kid—have you got any money? 1938 W. S. Churchill Great Contemporaries 336 The somewhat pathetic appeal of a retired officer mouldering on the beach. |
4. Comb., chiefly
attrib., as
beach-bag,
beach-bird,
beach-line,
beach-pea,
beach-pyjamas,
beach-robe,
beach-sand,
beach sandals,
beach shirt,
beach-wear,
beach-wrap. Also
beach-ball, a large inflated ball for use at a beach;
beach boy, a male beach attendant; a play-boy on a beach;
beach buggy orig. U.S., a low, wide-wheeled motor vehicle designed or adapted for recreational driving on sand: see
buggy n. 1 b (c);
beach bum slang [
bum n.4], an idler or tramp who spends his time on a beach;
beach-comber, ‘a long wave rolling in from the ocean’ (Bartlett
Dict. Amer.); also a settler on the islands of the Pacific, living by pearl-fishery, etc., and often by less reputable means (whence
beach-combing ppl. adj.);
beach crab, any crab of a species living on sea-beaches,
esp. Ocepoda arenaria;
beach cusp, a cusp of gravel or sand found at intervals of about 20 to 30 feet on a beach;
beachfront chiefly
U.S., the sea front beside a beach;
freq. used
attrib. to designate property, etc., located on the sea front or facing a beach;
beach gown, a bathing-wrap;
beach-grass, a reedy grass (
Arundo arenaria) growing on the sea-shore;
beachhead, also
beach-head Mil. [illogically formed after
bridge-head], a fortified position of troops landed on a beach; also
transf. and
fig.;
beach-man, (
a) one who earns his living on the beach; (
b) (see
quot. a 1865);
beach-master, a superior officer appointed to superintend the disembarkation of troops;
beach-plum U.S. (see
quots.);
beach rest, a chair-back used for sitting against on the beach;
beach-rock, a conglomeration of calcareous beach sand cemented by chalk into rock formation, found on coral reefs;
beach-wagon, a light open wagon, with two or more seats; a station-wagon.
| 1934 R. Macaulay Going Abroad iv. 40 They gathered up their *beach-bags and went up to the bar. |
| 1940 ‘N. Blake’ Malice in Wonderland i. vi. 73 The combatants were assaulting each other with *beach-balls. |
| 1837 Hawthorne Amer. Note Bks. (1871) I. 187 You are preceded by a flock of twenty or thirty *beach birds. |
| 1939 Time 12 June 87/1 Kilt-style skirt worn over shorts (already fashionable among Florida's rich *beach boys). 1965 ‘W. Haggard’ Hard Sell ii. 20 Penniless Sicilian barons were six a penny among the beach-boys. 1965 N.Z. Listener 17 Dec. 5/2 The Beach Boys are at the front of this wave of frantic surf music. |
| 1961 Webster, *Beach buggy. 1965 Hot Rod Apr. 75 (caption), A duner's delight, this beach buggy will run anywhere ‘wheels up’ in the toughest terrain. 1969 Daily Tel. 11 Oct. 14 The British public is being given its first chance to see an example of America's newest fun car, the Beachbuggy. 1985 Times 3 Jan. 24/6, 50 blacks stoned people in beach-buggies near Port Alfred on the Natal coast. |
| 1962 Austral. Women's Weekly 24 Oct. (Suppl.) 3/1 *Beach bum, a boy who doesn't work or go to school, just hangs around the beach all day and surfs. 1963 Observer 13 Oct. 15/3 He is the reverse of the popular image of a ‘surfie’ as a beach bum. 1986 Guardian Weekly 21 Sept. 8 If city ordinances can keep the condominiums away they can certainly handle a few beach bums. |
| 1840 R. H. Dana Bef. Mast (1841) xix. 46/1 In the twinkling of an eye I was transformed from a sailor into a ‘*beach⁓comber’ and a hide-curer. 1845 E. J. Wakefield Adv. in N.Z. I. xi. 339 Idle, drunken, vagabond..he wanders about without any fixed object, cannot get employed by the whaler or any one else, as it is out of his power to do a day's work; and he is universally known as the ‘beach-comber’. 1847 Blackw. Mag. LXI. 757 A daring Yankee beach-comber. 1859 A. S. Thomson Story of N.Z. I. ii. iii. 297 The Pakeha Maori must not be confounded with the idlers and beach-combers who loitered about Kororareka. 1880 Athenæum 18 Dec. 809/2 The white scamps who, as ‘Beach-combers,’ have polluted these Edens and debauched their inhabitants. 1919 W. S. Maugham Moon & Sixpence xlvii. 206 The corpse of a nameless beach⁓comber would be fished out of the dirty water of the harbour. |
| 1880 J. S. Cooper Coral Lands I. xx. 242 The *beach-combing pioneers of the Pacific. |
| 1909 Webster, *Beach crab. |
| 1900 J. C. Branner in Jrnl. Geol. VIII. 481 (title) The origin of *beach cusps. 1900 Geogr. Jrnl. Dec. 704 The author comes to the conclusion that beach cusps are produced by the interference of two sets of waves of translation on the beach. 1952 F. P. Shepard in Bull. Amer. Assoc. Petrol. Geol. XXXVI. 1909 Following common practice, these relatively small features are being referred to as ‘beach cusps’. |
| 1921 N.Y. Times 9 Sept. 15/1 It is calculated that {pstlg}100,000 was spent by the great *beach front hotels, business places and visitors. 1931 Atlantic City News 7 Aug. 4/2 The beachfront here..and large tracts of land in the most fertile parts of New Jersey..are all part of the Steelman heritage. 1972 Times 7 Aug. (Jamaica Suppl.) p. vi/3 Luxury hotels stand beside their beach-fronts. 1980 Daily Tel. 14 Jan. 1/8 His beachfront residence in Dar es Salaam. |
| 1928 Sunday Dispatch 8 July 16 When getting a bathing suit, don't forget a *beach-gown, which is now worn with a monk's hood, on the shore. |
| 1681 in Rec. of Town (East Hampton, N.Y.) II. 102 Thomas Bee doth..maintaine a sofisient three raile fence one the beach..down so low as any *Beach grass groues. 1852 T. Harris Insects New Eng. 50 note, The advantages to be derived from employing..beach-grass, in fixing the sands of the shore. |
| 1940 in Amer. Speech (1942) XVII. 122/1 The second theory [of the Germans], to harass communications and airports and *beachheads so effectively that landings could be undertaken. 1941 Time 25 Aug. 22/2 Marines..trained in the terrible job of establishing a beach-head. 1944 Times 24 Jan. 4/3 A substantial beachhead was seized. This beachhead has been widened and deepened. 1949 Koestler Promise & Fulf. xvi. 176 This commonwealth of immigrants would have become a beachhead of European tradition and democracy in the Levant. 1965 C. Walsh in J. Gibb Light on C. S. Lewis 110 The Screwtape Letters established Lewis's beachhead in America. |
| a 1865 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk. (1867) 88 *Beach-man, a person on the coast of Africa who acts as interpreter to shipmasters, and assists them in conducting the trade. 1881 Harper's Mag. LXIII. 494 The beachmen put their shoulders to the stern and gunwhale. 1929 F. C. Bowen Sea Slang 9 Beach Men, West African surf men and interpreters. |
| 1875 Bedford Sailor's Pocket Bk. vii. 275 The *Beach Master is to take care that..all appliances for disembarking troops..are kept in good order. |
| 1884 Harper's Mag. June 103/2 The *beach pea is found along the North Shore. |
| 1784 in Mem. Amer. Acad. Arts & Sci. (1785) I. 449 The *Beach, or Sea-Side Plumb. 1877 Bartlett Dict. Amer. (ed. 4) 550 Sand-Plum,..a beach-plum. A plum growing on plum-trees whose habitat is sandy beaches. |
| 1928 Vanity Fair Aug. 74 These *beach pyjamas of figured foulard are slipped on over the bathing suit. 1936 M. Laski in Cherwell 7 Mar., They paint their toenails, stroll down the High in beach pyjamas. 1959 New Statesman 13 June 838/2 A lady visitor to an East Coast resort..is discovered dead on the shore..wearing beach-pyjamas at early dawn. |
| 1881 C. M. Yonge Rev. Nieces 167, I see the invalid lady creep out with her *beach-rest. |
| 1952 Manch. Guardian Weekly 21 Feb. 5/1 The Admiral Lord Rodney, got up much like Nero in a cool *beachrobe or toga. |
| 1919 R. A. Daly in Carnegie Inst. Year Bk. 192 Cementation of beach sand by calcium carbonate is very common in..tropical seas generally. The product may be called ‘*beach-rock’. 1940 Geogr. Jrnl. XCV. 30 On tropical beaches the sands, or even coarse shingle, are commonly cemented into a hard rock, called beach-rock or conglomerate, by carbonate of lime precipitated from sea-water. |
| 1934 W. Plomer Invaders xiv. 262 He was wearing only..trousers and *beach sandals. 1966 ‘A. York’ Eliminator iii. 49 She..thrust her feet into gold beach sandals. |
| 1966 G. Lyall Shooting Script viii. 47 There was just one man alone, wearing a vivid *beach shirt. |
| 1868 L. M. Alcott Little Women (1869) II. 35, I shall hire a *beach-wagon. 1935 H. Nicolson Let. 17 July (1966) 209 There was the beach-wagon going down to the village. 1948 Chicago Tribune 9 May 11. 10/4 Use of the parking facilities is restricted to automobiles, beach wagons, and motor cycles. |
| 1928 Men's Wear (U.S.) Oct. 10 (caption) Fantastic *Beach Wear at Juan les Pins. 1952 Vogue June 6 (Advt.), Our gay, new beachwear. |
| 1927 Star 30 May 8/1 Women's *Beach Wraps, made of..coloured towelling. |
▪ II. beach, v.1 (
biːtʃ)
[f. prec. n.] trans. To run or haul (a vessel) up on the beach.
| 1840 Dana Bef. Mast xxvii. 91 We rowed ashore..beached our boat. 1868 Morris Jason xi. 425 And as the Goddess bade them, there they beached Their sea-beat ship. |
▪ III. beach, -en obs. forms of
beech,
-en.
▪ IV. † beach, v.2 Obs. [perh. aphetic f. abeche, a. OF. abechier, f. à to + bec beak n.1; but cf. also OF. bechier, becher to peck, strike with the beak, also ‘to give a beakful.’] trans. To give a beakful to (a young bird); hence
spec. in
Falconry, to give part of a meal as a whet to appetite.
| 1575 Turberv. Falconrie 103 Giue hir washte meate and beach [printed beade] hir in the morning. |