Persian Gulf

Also found in: Thesaurus, Medical, Acronyms, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia.

Related to Persian Gulf: Persian Gulf War, Persian Empire, Arabian Gulf

Persian Gulf

also Arabian Gulf

An arm of the Arabian Sea between the Arabian Peninsula and southwest Iran. It has been an important trade route since ancient times and gained added strategic significance after the discovery of oil in the Gulf States in the 1930s.

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.

Persian Gulf

(Placename) a shallow arm of the Arabian Sea between SW Iran and Arabia: linked with the Arabian Sea by the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman; important for the oilfields on its shores. Area: 233 000 sq km (90 000 sq miles)

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

Per′sian Gulf′

an arm of the Arabian Sea, between SW Iran and Arabia. 600 mi. (965 km) long.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Switch to new thesaurus

Noun

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

Arabian Gulf

Bahrain, Bahrain Island, Bahrein, Bahrein Island - an island in the Persian Gulf

Arabian Sea - a northwestern arm of the Indian Ocean between India and Arabia

Translations

Persianlahti

Perzische Golf

Golfo Persa

Персидский залив

Persian Gulf

n → Golfo Persico

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

References in classic literature ?

Its course was N.N.E., in the direction of the Sea of Oman, between Arabia and the Indian Peninsula, which serves as an outlet to the Persian Gulf. It was evidently a block without any possible egress.

"The Persian Gulf has no outlet: and, if we do go in, it will not be long before we are out again."

"Very well, then, we will come out again, Master Land; and if, after the Persian Gulf, the Nautilus would like to visit the Red Sea, the Straits of Bab-el-mandeb are there to give us entrance."

View in context

But not to speak of the passage through the whole length of the Mediterranean, and another passage up the Persian Gulf and Red Sea, such a supposition would involve the complete circumnavigation of all Africa in three days, not to speak of the Tigris waters, near the site of Nineveh, being too shallow for any whale to swim in.

View in context

Because, an interval of three hundred and sixty-five days and nights was before him; an interval which, instead of impatiently enduring ashore, he would spend in a miscellaneous hunt; if by chance the White Whale, spending his vacation in seas far remote from his periodical feeding-grounds, should turn up his wrinkled brow off the Persian Gulf, or in the Bengal Bay, or China Seas, or in any other waters haunted by his race.

View in context

We set sail and took our course towards the East Indies by the Persian Gulf, having the coast of Persia upon our left hand and upon our right the shores of Arabia Felix.

View in context

The brave Americans serving our nation today in the Persian Gulf, in Somalia, and wherever else they stand, are testament to our resolve, but our greatest strength is the power of our ideas, which are still new in many lands.

View in context

Sometimes we saw him passing in lonely majesty to his inner sanctum, with his eyes staring vaguely and his mind hovering over the Balkans or the Persian Gulf. He was above and beyond us.

View in context

Think of Anglo-German competition, for example--or the Persian Gulf that my old chief was so keen about.

View in context

With favoring winds it is wafted past the site of the fabulous islands of Atlantis and the Hesperides, makes the periplus of Hanno, and, floating by Ternate and Tidore and the mouth of the Persian Gulf, melts in the tropic gales of the Indian seas, and is landed in ports of which Alexander only heard the names.

View in context

He described the presence of trans-regional states in the region as a source of insecurity and instability, stressing that the Iranian Naval forces and the IRGC Navy have established security in the Persian Gulf, the Sea of Oman and the Indian Ocean.

IRGC Commander Warns of Hazards of Foreign N-Powered Warships in Persian Gulf

It has established its own strategic policy that is contrast to the Shah's strategic policy of gaining US support and guarantees of security in exchange of keeping watch over the Persian Gulf's security on the behalf of US.