n.
The land bordering a body of water; a beach.
v., strand·ed, strand·ing, strands. v.tr.
- To drive or run ashore or aground.
- To bring into or leave in a difficult or helpless position: The convoy was stranded in the desert.
- Baseball. To leave (a base runner) on base at the end of an inning.
- Linguistics. To separate (a grammatical element) from other elements in a construction, either by moving it out of the construction or moving the rest of the construction. In the sentence What are you aiming at, the preposition at has been stranded.
- To be driven or run ashore or aground.
- To be brought into or left in a difficult or helpless position.
[Middle English, from Old English.]
strand2 (strănd)
n.
- A complex of fibers or filaments that have been twisted together to form a cable, rope, thread, or yarn.
- A single filament, such as a fiber or thread, of a woven or braided material.
- A wisp or tress of hair.
- Something that is plaited or twisted as a ropelike length: a strand of pearls; a strand of DNA.
- One of the elements woven together to make an intricate whole, such as the plot of a novel.
- To make or form (a rope, for example) by twisting strands together.
- To break a strand of (a rope, for example).
[Middle English strond.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
