North Sea

An arm of the Atlantic Ocean between Great Britain and northwest Europe. It is connected with the English Channel by the Strait of Dover. Major reserves of oil and natural gas were discovered beneath its waters in the late 1960s.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

North Sea

(Placename) an arm of the Atlantic between Great Britain and the N European mainland. Area: about 569 800 sq km (220 000 sq miles). Former name: German Ocean

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

North′ Sea′

an arm of the Atlantic between Great Britain and the European mainland. ab. 201,000 sq. mi. (520,600 sq. km); greatest depth, 1998 ft. (610 m).

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

North Sea - an arm of the North Atlantic between the British Isles and Scandinavia; oil was discovered under the North Sea in 1970

Orkney Islands - an archipelago of about 70 islands in the North Atlantic and North Sea off the northeastern coast of Scotland

Atlantic, Atlantic Ocean - the 2nd largest ocean; separates North and South America on the west from Europe and Africa on the east

Kattegatt - a strait of the North Sea between Jutland and Sweden; connects with the North Sea through the Skagerrak

Skagerak, Skagerrak - a broad strait of the North Sea between Jutland and Norway

Zuider Zee - a former inlet of the North Sea in the northern coast of the Netherlands; sealed off from the sea in 1932 by a dam that created the IJsselmeer

Translations

الْبَحرُ الْشِّمَالِيُّ

Severní moře

Nordsøen

Nordsee

Βόρεια Θάλασσα

Mar del Norte

Põhjameri

Pohjanmeri

mer du Nord

Sjeverno more

Laut Utara

Norðursjór

Mare del Nord

北海

북해

Mare Germanicum

Nordsjön

ทะเลเหนือ

Kuzey Denizi

Biển Bắc

北海

North Sea

n the North Sea → il mare del Nord

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

North Sea

→ الْبَحرُ الْشِّمَالِيُّ Severní moře Nordsøen Nordsee Βόρεια Θάλασσα Mar del Norte Pohjanmeri mer du Nord Sjeverno more Mare del Nord 北海 북해 Noordzee Nordsjøen Morze Północne Mar do Norte Северное море Nordsjön ทะเลเหนือ Kuzey Denizi Biển Bắc 北海

Multilingual Translator © HarperCollins Publishers 2009

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

In the North Sea lies a dead sea-cat-- that shall be their roast meat; and the rib of a whale--that shall be their silver spoon; and the hollow foot of a dead horse--that shall be their wineglass.'

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I accompanied the whale-fishers on several expeditions to the North Sea; I voluntarily endured cold, famine, thirst, and want of sleep; I often worked harder than the common sailors during the day and devoted my nights to the study of mathematics, the theory of medicine, and those branches of physical science from which a naval adventurer might derive the greatest practical advantage.

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Hobson's letter I no more thought of pursuing the unicorn than of attempting the passage of the North Sea. Three seconds after reading the letter of the honourable Secretary of Marine, I felt that my true vocation, the sole end of my life, was to chase this disturbing monster and purge it from the world.

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He managed to keep up on deck as far as the Downs, where, giving his orders in an exhausted voice, he anchored for a few hours to send a wire to his wife and take aboard a North Sea pilot to help him sail the ship up the east coast.

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On the following morning at dawn Cornelius found himself beyond Leyden, having the North Sea on his left, and the Zuyder Zee on his right.

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My lullaby, for years past, has been the moaning of the great North Sea, under my window.

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He seemed to see the fat Kentish fields with their stately elms; and his nostrils dilated with the scent of the air; it is laden with the salt of the North Sea, and that makes it keen and sharp.

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There, it was said, the unfortunate banished king consoled himself in his exile, by looking, with the melancholy peculiar to the princes of his race, at that immense North Sea, which separated him from his England, as it had formerly separated Mary Stuart from France.

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"We worked out of the Thames under canvas, with a North Sea pilot on board.

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THE consulting-rooms of Dr Orion Hood, the eminent criminologist and specialist in certain moral disorders, lay along the sea-front at Scarborough, in a series of very large and well-lighted french windows, which showed the North Sea like one endless outer wall of blue-green marble.

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If we found no civilization there we would return to the North Sea, continue up the coast to the Elbe, and follow that river and the canals of Berlin.

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"Seems pretty clear that there's an expeditionary force being fitted out, according to this evening's paper, somewhere up in the North Sea. The only Englishman I've spoken to on this side was willing to lay me odds that war would be declared within a week."

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