Shore Meaning
/ʃɔː/Definition, CEFR level A2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounLand adjoining a non-flowing body of water, such as an ocean, lake or pond.
nounLand, usually near a port.
Sentence Examples
I can see some boats far away from the shore.
I saw a fishing boat about a mile off the shore.
Huge waves were breaking on the shore.
CEFR Practice Quiz
After swimming, we sat on the ____ to dry off.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
We sat quietly on the sandy ____ and watched the rhythmic waves crash slowly against the wooden pier.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English schore, from Old English *sċora (attested as sċor- in placenames), from Proto-Germanic *skurô (“rugged rock, cliff, high rocky shore”). Possibly related to Old English sċieran (“to cut”), which survives today as English shear. Cognate with Middle Dutch scorre (“land washed by the sea”), Middle Low German schor (“shore, coast, headland”), Middle High German schorre ("rocky crag, high rocky shore"; > German Schorre, Schorren (“towering rock, crag”)), and Limburgish sjaor (“riverbank”). Maybe connected with Norwegian Bokmål skjær.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"the fruitful shore of muddy Nile"
— 1591, Ed[mund] Sp[enser], “Visions of the Worlds Vanitie”, in Complaints. Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie. […], London: […] William Ponsonbie, […], →OCLC:
"Now we plunged into a deep shade with the boughs lacing each other overhead, and crossed dainty, rustic bridges[…]: or anon we shot into a clearing, with a colored glimpse of the lake and its curving shore far below us."
— 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
"Floods in the middle Yangtse were frequent in the past. The Yangtse carries less silt than the Yellow River. But under the old regimes, the Chingkiang section (the section of the middle Yangtse between Chihchiang County in Hupeh Province and Chenglingchi in Hunan Province), the shores of the Tungting Lake and the lower reaches of the Han Shui were frequently flooded, causing great damage to the vast plain of Hupeh and Hunan."
— 1958, Wang Chun-heng, “The Middle Yangtse Region”, in A Simple Geography of China (China Knowledge Series), Peking: Foreign Languages Press, →OCLC, page 117:
"the ship quickened her way, and shot past that rocke, where wee thought shee would have shored."
— 1589, Richard Hakluyt, The Principall Navigations, Voiages, and Discoveries of the English Nation, […], London: […] George Bishop and Ralph Newberie, deputies to Christopher Barker, […], →OCLC:
"I will bring these two moles, these blind ones, aboard him: if he think it fit to shore them again"
— c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iv]:
Explore More A2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
After swimming, we sat on the ____ to dry off.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
We sat quietly on the sandy ____ and watched the rhythmic waves crash slowly against the wooden pier.