| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| land |
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| PRONUNCIATION: |  l nd |
| NOUN: | 1. The solid ground of the earth. 2a. Ground or soil: tilled the land. b. A topographically or functionally distinct tract: desert land; prime building land. 3a. A nation; a country. b. The people of a nation, district, or region. c. lands Territorial possessions or property. 4. Public or private landed property; real estate. 5. Law a. A tract that may be owned, together with everything growing or constructed on it. b. A landed estate. 6a. An agricultural or farming area: wanted to buy a house on the land. b. Farming considered as a way of life: “The ‘back to the land movement’ began a couple years ago at the peak of South Korea's economic development and has roots in environmentalism and Buddhist philosophy.” (Michael Baker, Christian Science Monitor October 5, 1998). 7. An area or realm: the land of make-believe; the land of television. 8. The raised portion of a grooved surface, as on a phonograph record. | | VERB: | Inflected forms: land·ed, land·ing, lands
| | TRANSITIVE VERB: | 1a. To bring to and unload on land: land cargo. b. To set (a vehicle) down on land or another surface: land an airplane smoothly; land a seaplane on a lake. 2. Informal To cause to arrive in a place or condition: Civil disobedience will land you in jail. 3a. To catch and pull in (a fish): landed a big catfish. b. Informal To win; secure: land a big contract. 4. Informal To deliver: landed a blow on his opponent's head. | | INTRANSITIVE VERB: | 1a. To come to shore: landed against the current with great difficulty. b. To disembark: landed at a crowded dock. 2. To descend toward and settle onto the ground or another surface: The helicopter has landed. 3. Informal To arrive in a place or condition: landed at the theater too late for the opening curtain; landed in trouble for being late. 4. To come to rest in a certain way or place: slipped and landed on his shoulder. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English, from Old English. See lendh- in Appendix I.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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