GULF

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does gulf mean? 

• GULF (noun)
  The noun GULF has 3 senses:

1. an arm of a sea or ocean partly enclosed by land; larger than a bay

2. an unbridgeable disparity (as from a failure of understanding)

3. a deep wide chasm

  Familiarity information: GULF used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GULF (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An arm of a sea or ocean partly enclosed by land; larger than a bay

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Hypernyms ("gulf" is a kind of...):

body of water; water (the part of the earth's surface covered with water (such as a river or lake or ocean))

Instance hyponyms:

Gulf of Alaska (a gulf of the Pacific Ocean between the Alaska Peninsula and the Alexander Archipelago)

Arabian Gulf; 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)

Gulf of Venice (an arm of the Adriatic Sea)

Gulf of Siam; Gulf of Thailand (an arm of the South China Sea between Indochina and the Malay Peninsula)

Gulf of Tehuantepec (an arm of the Pacific in southern Mexico)

Gulf of Suez (a northwestern arm of the Red Sea linked to the Mediterranean by the Suez Canal)

Gulf of Sidra (wide inlet of the Mediterranean Sea on the north coast of Libya)

Gulf of Saint Lawrence; Gulf of St. Lawrence (an arm of the northwest Atlantic Ocean off the southeastern coast of Canada)

Gulf of Riga (an inlet of the Baltic Sea between Latvia and Estonia)

Gulf of Oman (an arm of the Arabian Sea connecting it with the Persian Gulf)

Bay of Ob; Gulf of Ob (an inlet of the Kara Sea in western Siberia)

Golfo de Mexico; Gulf of Mexico (an arm of the Atlantic to the south of the United States and to the east of Mexico)

Gulf of Martaban (an arm of the Andaman Sea off southern Myanmar)

Gulf of Guinea (a gulf off the southwest coast of Africa)

Gulf of Finland (an eastern arm of the Baltic Sea; between Finland and Estonia)

Gulf of Corinth; Gulf of Lepanto (inlet of the Ionian Sea between central Greece and the Peloponnesus)

Carpentaria; Gulf of Carpentaria (a wide shallow inlet of the Arafura Sea in northern Australia)

Bay of Campeche; Golfo de Campeche; Gulf of Campeche (a part of the Gulf of Mexico to the west of Yucatan)

Gulf of California; Sea of Cortes (a gulf to the west of the mainland of Mexico)

Gulf of Bothnia (a northern arm of the Baltic Sea; between Sweden and Finland)

Gulf of Akaba; Gulf of Aqaba (a northeastern arm of the Red Sea; between the Sinai Peninsula (Egypt) and Saudi Arabia)

Gulf of Antalya (a gulf of the Mediterranean Sea in southwestern Turkey)

Gulf of Aden (arm of the Indian Ocean at the entrance to the Red Sea)

Holonyms ("gulf" is a part of...):

sea (a division of an ocean or a large body of salt water partially enclosed by land)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An unbridgeable disparity (as from a failure of understanding)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

disconnect; disconnection; gulf

Context example:

there is a vast disconnect between public opinion and federal policy

Hypernyms ("gulf" is a kind of...):

disparity (inequality or difference in some respect)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A deep wide chasm

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Hypernyms ("gulf" is a kind of...):

chasm (a deep opening in the earth's surface)

 Context examples 

For the moment the great gulf that separated them was bridged.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

They were as dead men in their comrades’ eyes, and between them was the gulf that parts the living and the dead.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

You think that the gulf between is too wide.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A gulf seemed to divide this brisk uncertain existence from the old steady round of work and of prayer which he had left behind him.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The Lion was about to reply when suddenly they came to another gulf across the road.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

A deep gulf, she observed, had opened between Dora and me, and Love could only span it with its rainbow.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The gulf between the dead and the living was something which our chemistry could not as yet bridge.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Jane, I approached the verge of despair; a remnant of self-respect was all that intervened between me and the gulf.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Not only was the disparity between the indirect measure and their 'direct' on as wide as 44-fold, the higher the level of BPA, the greater the gulf between their measure and the one used by the FDA was.

(Humans exposed to far more hormone-disrupting chemicals than thought, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

There were few people on whose secrecy she would have more confidently depended; but, at the same time, there was no one whose knowledge of a sister's frailty would have mortified her so much—not, however, from any fear of disadvantage from it individually to herself, for, at any rate, there seemed a gulf impassable between them.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)