Definition of "sea"

sea

/siː/

noun
plural seas
1. A large body of salt water.
  Quotations
  God moves in a myſterious way, / His wonders to perform; / He plants his footſteps in the ſea, / And rides upon the ſtorm.
  1780, William Cowper, “Light Shining out of Darkneſs”, in Twenty-ſix Letters on Religious Subjects […] To which are added Hymns […] ‎, 4th edition, page 252
  1. The ocean; the continuous body of salt water covering a majority of the Earth's surface.
    Quotations
    These ſhal ye eat, of all that are in the waters: whatsoeuer hath finnes and ſcales in the waters, in the ſeas, and in the riuers, them ſhall ye eate.
    1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Leviticus 11:9, column 2
    At length the universal Wreck appear'd,/ To Cæsar's self, ev'n worthy to be fear'd./ Why all these Pains, this Toil of Fate (he cries)/ This Labour of the Seas, and Earth, and Skies?/ All Nature, and the Gods at once alarm'd,/ Against my little Boat and me are arm'd.
    1719, Nicholas Rowe, “Book V”, in Lucan's Pharsalia: Translated into English Verse, Dublin: James Carson, page 183
    There is something in being near the sea, like the confines of eternity. It is a new element, a pure abstraction. The mind loves to hover on that which is endless, and forever the same. People wonder at a steam-boat, the invention of man, managed by man, that makes its liquid path like an iron railway through the sea—I wonder at the sea itself, that vast Leviathan, rolled round the earth, smiling in its sleep, waked into fury, fathomless, boundless, a huge world of water-drops.—Whence is it, whither goes it, is it of eternity, or of nothing?
    1833, William Hazlitt, “Notes of a Journey Through France and Italy”, in Greenbank's Periodical Library, volume I, chapter 1, page 173
    As we stood there watching, the long yellow light on the eastern horizon suddenly changed in color—first to a roseate flush, then to a warm crimson; the scenes round us, sky, sea, and land, brightened as if by magic.
    1922 March, J. S. Fletcher, “The Mystery of Ravensdene Court”, in Everybody's Magazine, volume XLVI, number 3, page 162
  2. A body of salt water smaller than an ocean, generally forming part of, or connecting with, an ocean or a larger sea.
2. A lake, especially if large or if salty or brackish.
3. The swell of the sea; a single wave; billow.
  Quotations
  One ſea broke away the ſpare yards and ſpars out of the ſtarboard main chains. Another heavy ſea broke into the ſhip and ſtove all the boats. Several caſks of beer, that had been laſhed upon deck, were broke looſe and waſhed overboard, and it was not without great difficulty and riſk that we were able to ſecure the boats from being waſhed away entirely.
  1792, William Bligh, chapter II, in A Voyage to the South Sea, […] in His Majesty’s Ship The Bounty, […], London: […] George Nicol, […], page 14
  "If they buy three cords of birch logs," said the witch, "but they must be exact measure and no bargaining about the price, and if they throw overboard the one cord of logs, piece by piece, when the first sea comes, and the other cord, piece by piece, when the second sea comes, and the third cord, piece by piece, when the third sea comes, then it's all over with us."
  1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 187
  There was a small sea rising with the wind coming up from the east and at noon the old man's left hand was uncramped.
  1952, Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea
  High pressure will maintain light winds and flat seas through Tue night... Potential for briefly choppy 3 ft seas near South Coast...
  2020 June 8, National Weather Service Boston, 2:38 PM EDT marine forecast
4. (attributive, in combination) Living or used in or on the sea; of, near, or like the sea.
5. (figurative) Anything resembling the vastness or turbulence of the sea.
  Quotations
  To be, or not to be, that is the question,/ Whether tis nobler in the minde to suffer/ The slings and arrowes of outragious fortune,/ Or to take Armes against a sea of troubles,/ And by opposing, end them, to die to sleepe/ No more, and by a sleepe, to say we end/ The hart-ake, and the thousand naturall shocks/ That flesh is heire to.
  1604, William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke‎, London: Nicholas Ling
  Secondly, in terms of geopolitics Central Asia was a huge sea of barbarians set in the midst of interlocking continents. Thanks to its border on the Siberian forest in the north, it was open to barbarian incomers who would upset existing polities and set migrations going.
  1980, Patria Crone, Slaves on Horseback: The Evolution of the Islamic Polity, Cambridge University Press
  In the last two decades, North Korea has on various occasions conducted highly provocative missile and nuclear tests and promised to turn Seoul into a sea of fire.
  2013 April 9, Andrei Lankov, “Stay Cool. Call North Korea’s Bluff.”, in New York Times‎
6. (physics) A constant flux of gluons splitting into quarks, which annihilate to produce further gluons.
7. (planetology) A large, dark plain of rock; a mare.
8. (planetology) A very large lake of liquid hydrocarbon.