breakwater

See also: break water

English

Etymology

From break +‎ water. Compare Dutch breekwater (“breakwater”). Compare firebreak.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈbɹeɪkˌwɔːtə/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

breakwater (plural breakwaters)

1. A construction in or around a harbour designed to break the force of the sea and to provide shelter for vessels lying inside.
   • 1853, John Ruskin, “The Throne”, in The Stones of Venice, volume II (The Sea-Stories), London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, § VI, page 8:

     […] there is a channel, some three miles wide between the city and the mainland, and some mile and a half wide between it and the sandy breakwater called the Lido, which divides the lagoon from the Adriatic,

   • 1908, G[ilbert] K[eith] Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare, Bristol: J[ames] W[illiams] Arrowsmith, […]; London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Company, →OCLC, page 259:

     But there's a pier or breakwater runs out into the sea just here, which we could defend longer than anything else, like Horatius and his bridge.

   • 1956 September, F. F. Nicholls, “Neyland, A Forgotten Harbour”, in Railway Magazine, page 632:

     Using the countless tons of rock from the cliff-face, supplemented by much more from inland, they threw out a huge breakwater, 2,000 ft. long and 80 ft. high, roughly at right angles to the quay, so forming an almost completely sheltered corner. Fifty years later, this massive mole is still standing up to the worst that the Irish Sea can do.

   • 1992, Vernor Vinge, A Fire Upon the Deep, New York: Tor Books, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 70:

     They sailed around a breakwater that hadn't existed on Peregrine's last trip and tied in at the moorage.

2. (nautical) A low bulkhead across the forecastle deck of a ship which diverts water breaking over the bows into the scuppers.
3. (on beaches) A wooden or concrete barrier, usually perpendicular to the shore, intended to prevent the movement of sand along a coast.

Translations

construction in or around a harbour

Afrikaans: breekwater Armenian: ծովապատնեշ (hy) (covapatneš) Bulgarian: вълноло́м (bg) m (vǎlnolóm) Catalan: escullera (ca) f Chinese: Mandarin: 防波堤 (zh) (fángbōdī) Czech: vlnolam (cs) m Danish: mole (da) c, bølgebryder c Dutch: golfbreker (nl) m, havenhoofd (nl) n, havendam (nl) c Estonian: muul (et) Finnish: aallonmurtaja (fi) French: jetée (fr) f, brise-lames (fr) m, môle (fr) Galician: crebaondas m, quebraondas m German: Mole (de) f, Wellenbrecher (de) m Greek: κυματοθραύστης (el) m (kymatothráfstis) Ancient: πρόχωσις f (prókhōsis) Hebrew: שׁוֹבֵר גַּלִּים (he) m (shover galim) Hungarian: hullámtörő (hu) Ido: ondegoruptilo (io) Irish: tonnchosc m, bábhún m Italian: frangiflutti (it) m, frangimare m, frangionde m Japanese: 防波堤 (ja) (ぼうはてい, bōhatei) Khmer: ជញ្ជាំងការពារឆ្នេរសមុទ្រ (cʊəñceang kaa pie cneɛ sa’mot) Korean: 방파제(防波堤) (ko) (bangpaje) Macedonian: бранобран m (branobran) Maori: rongoteka Norman: caûchie f Norwegian: Bokmål: bølgebryter m Nynorsk: bølgebrytar m Polish: falochron (pl) m Portuguese: quebra-mar (pt) m, esporão (pt) m Russian: волноре́з (ru) m (volnoréz), волноло́м (ru) m (volnolóm), мол (ru) m (mol), на́сыпь (ru) f (násypʹ) Scottish Gaelic: doirlinn-fasgaidh m Serbo-Croatian: lukobran (sh) m Slovak: vlnolam m Spanish: rompeolas m, espigón (es) m, reventazón m, escollera (es) f Swedish: vågbrytare (sv) c Tagalog: pamasag-alon Ukrainian: хвилері́з m (xvyleríz) Welsh: morglawdd m

low bulkhead across the forecastle deck of a ship

Italian: bulbo (it) m

beach barrier

Chinese: Mandarin: 防波堤 (zh) (fángbōdī) Dutch: golfbreker (nl) French: brise-lames (fr) m, digue (fr) f German: Buhne (de) f, Wellenbrecher (de) m or m pl Greek: κυματοθραύστης (el) m (kymatothráfstis) Italian: diga foranea f Macedonian: бранобран m (branobran) Polish: ostroga brzegowa f Russian: волноре́з (ru) m (volnoréz), волноло́м (ru) m (volnolóm) Spanish: rompeolas m, reventazón m, escollera (es) f

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Hebrew: (please verify) שובר־גלים m (shover-galym) (1) Korean: (please verify) 방파제(防波堤) (ko) (bangpaje) (3)

Further reading

• breakwater (structure) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• water break, waterbreak