sea-wall
1. A wall or embankment to prevent the encroachment of the sea, or to form a breakwater, etc.
In OE. a cliff by the sea.
| Beowulf 1924 Hiᵹelac..wunade..sæwealle neah. c 1440 Jacob's Well 6 Þe more þe watyr in þe se is styred wyth þe wynde, þe more it flowyth, & brekyth out, ouer þe se-wallys in-to dyuerse placys. 1565 Cooper Thesaurus, Agger,..a water-banke: a sea wall. 1707 Mortimer Husb. (1721) I. 29 The..making of Drains, Sea-walls [etc.]. 1862 Ansted Channel Isl. i. iii. 52 The inroads of the sea..have been checked, wherever necessary, by a sea wall. |
b. N. Amer. ‘An embankment of stones thrown up by the waves on a shore’ (Cent. Dict. 1891).
| 1896 Trans. Roy. Soc. Canada II. ii. 210 Sea-wall, a gravel or boulder ridge thrown up by the waves. |
2. The sea as a wall or barrier of defence. Cf. sea-walled. rare.
| 1879 Geo. Eliot Theo. Such xviii. 327 Many of us have thought that our sea-wall is a specially divine arrangement. |
So sea-walled a., surrounded or protected by the sea as a wall of defence; sea-waller, one who builds sea-walls; sea-walling, the building or repairing of sea-walls.
| 1593 Shakes. Rich. II, iii. iv. 43 When our Sea-walled Garden, the whole Land, Is full of Weedes. 1790 Trans. Soc. Arts, etc. VIII. 92 A contract was entered into with two companies of sea-wallers,..for the erection of a new wall. 1794 Ibid. XII. 115 One of the chief uses to which Chestnut is applied..is sea-walling, or embankments against the sea. 1852 J. Wiggins Embanking 2 Having been for many years connected much with sea-walling, both in building and repairing. |