Definition of "continental"

Offshore to the west of the continental margin during the Early Triassic, the Sonoma highlands formed a volcanic island arc, separated from the mainland by a shallow sea that cut through western Nevada and northwestern Utah.

2012, Chinle Miller, “The Tectonic Forces of the Mesozoic”, in In Mesozoic Lands: The Mesozoic Geology of Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, Kindle edition, page 34

No former king had involved himself so frequently in the labyrinth of continental alliances.

1827, Henry Hallam, The Constitutional History of England from the Accession of Henry VII. to the Death of George II. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: John Murray, […]

The outline of continental Ireland is proximately that of a rhomboid ; and, in a general view, is greatly more continuous or less indented and undulated by cuts and sweeps of the sea than the outline of continental Great Britain.

1846 The Parliamentary gazetteer of Ireland (A. Fullarton, Dublin) Vol.1 p.x "Introduction; Extent"

at Monte Carlo or some of the other Continental gambling-hells

1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter I, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company

Reflecting on his long career chronicling scientists, J. G. Crowther wondered why it was that in the grand debates over the nature of light, x-rays, and cathode rays, the British opted for particles and the continentals for waves.

2012, Marjorie Senechal, I Died for Beauty: Dorothy Wrinch and the Cultures of Science