Library / English Dictionary

GULF

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

An unbridgeable disparity (as from a failure of understanding)

Example:

there is a vast disconnect between public opinion and federal policy

Synonyms:

disconnect; disconnection; gulf

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("gulf" is a kind of...):

disparity (inequality or difference in some respect)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A deep wide chasm

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Hypernyms ("gulf" is a kind of...):

chasm (a deep opening in the earth's surface)

Sense 3

Meaning:

An arm of a sea or ocean partly enclosed by land; larger than a bay

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Hypernyms ("gulf" is a kind of...):

body of water; water (the part of the earth's surface covered with water (such as a river or lake or ocean))

Instance hyponyms:

Arabian Gulf; Persian Gulf (a shallow arm of the Arabian Sea between Iran and the Arabian peninsula; the Persian Gulf oil fields are among the most productive in the world)

Gulf of Venice (an arm of the Adriatic Sea)

Gulf of Siam; Gulf of Thailand (an arm of the South China Sea between Indochina and the Malay Peninsula)

Gulf of Tehuantepec (an arm of the Pacific in southern Mexico)

Gulf of Suez (a northwestern arm of the Red Sea linked to the Mediterranean by the Suez Canal)

Gulf of Sidra (wide inlet of the Mediterranean Sea on the north coast of Libya)

Gulf of Saint Lawrence; Gulf of St. Lawrence (an arm of the northwest Atlantic Ocean off the southeastern coast of Canada)

Gulf of Riga (an inlet of the Baltic Sea between Latvia and Estonia)

Gulf of Oman (an arm of the Arabian Sea connecting it with the Persian Gulf)

Bay of Ob; Gulf of Ob (an inlet of the Kara Sea in western Siberia)

Golfo de Mexico; Gulf of Mexico (an arm of the Atlantic to the south of the United States and to the east of Mexico)

Gulf of Martaban (an arm of the Andaman Sea off southern Myanmar)

Gulf of Guinea (a gulf off the southwest coast of Africa)

Gulf of Finland (an eastern arm of the Baltic Sea; between Finland and Estonia)

Gulf of Corinth; Gulf of Lepanto (inlet of the Ionian Sea between central Greece and the Peloponnesus)

Carpentaria; Gulf of Carpentaria (a wide shallow inlet of the Arafura Sea in northern Australia)

Bay of Campeche; Golfo de Campeche; Gulf of Campeche (a part of the Gulf of Mexico to the west of Yucatan)

Gulf of California; Sea of Cortes (a gulf to the west of the mainland of Mexico)

Gulf of Bothnia (a northern arm of the Baltic Sea; between Sweden and Finland)

Gulf of Akaba; Gulf of Aqaba (a northeastern arm of the Red Sea; between the Sinai Peninsula (Egypt) and Saudi Arabia)

Gulf of Antalya (a gulf of the Mediterranean Sea in southwestern Turkey)

Gulf of Alaska (a gulf of the Pacific Ocean between the Alaska Peninsula and the Alexander Archipelago)

Gulf of Aden (arm of the Indian Ocean at the entrance to the Red Sea)

Holonyms ("gulf" is a part of...):

sea (a division of an ocean or a large body of salt water partially enclosed by land)

Credits

 Context examples: 

It was just at sundown when we cast anchor in a most beautiful land-locked gulf, and were immediately surrounded by shore boats full of Negroes and Mexican Indians and half-bloods selling fruits and vegetables and offering to dive for bits of money.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

In his mind, as in her own, the gulf widened; but faster than it widened, towered his ambition to win across it.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The gulf between me and Miss Shepherd widens.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I came next, and tried hard not to look down into the horrible gulf over which I was passing.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I was tempted to cease struggling with him—to rush down the torrent of his will into the gulf of his existence, and there lose my own.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The Scarecrow sat upon the Lion's back, and the big beast walked to the edge of the gulf and crouched down.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

I can tell you, gentlemen, that the gulf which can be bridged by unlawful love can be spanned also by an unlawful hatred, and that upon the day when this young man stole from me all that made my life worth living, I vowed to Heaven that I should take from him that foul life of his, though the deed would cover but the tiniest fraction of the debt which he owed me.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

True that his gentle and thoughtful nature recoiled from the grim work of war, yet in those days of martial orders and militant brotherhoods there was no gulf fixed betwixt the priest and the soldier.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

And then, one day, without warning, the gulf between them was bridged for a moment, and thereafter, though the gulf remained, it was ever narrower.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I kissed her, and my baby brother, and was very sorry then; but not sorry to go away, for the gulf between us was there, and the parting was there, every day.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)