breakwater

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

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

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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.

   • 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.

• breakwater (structure) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• water break, waterbreak