sand

• IPA^(key): /sænd/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ænd

From Middle English sand, from Old English sand, from Proto-West Germanic *samd, from Proto-Germanic *samdaz, from Proto-Indo-European *sámh₂dʰos, from *sem- (“to pour”).

See also West Frisian sân, Dutch zand, German Sand, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian sand, Latin sabulum, Ancient Greek ἄμαθος (ámathos), English dialectal samel (“sand bottom”), Old Irish do·essim (“to pour out”), Latin sentina (“bilge water”), Lithuanian sémti (“to scoop”), Ancient Greek ἀμάω (amáō, “to gather”), ἄμη (ámē, “water bucket”).

sand (usually uncountable, plural sands)

1. (uncountable) Rock that is ground more finely than gravel, but is not as fine as silt (more formally, see grain sizes chart), forming beaches and deserts and also used in construction.
   • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

     For a spell we done pretty well. Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand.

   • 2018, Neil Tweedie, “Is the world running out of sand? The truth behind stolen beaches and dredged islands”, in The Guardian‎:

     “We are addicted to sand but don’t know it because we don’t buy it as individuals,” says Aurora Torres, […]

   • 2018, Neil Tweedie, “Is the world running out of sand? The truth behind stolen beaches and dredged islands”, in The Guardian‎:

     China’s hunger for sand is insatiable, its biggest dredging site at Lake Poyang produces 989,000 tonnes per day.

   1. (countable) A specific grade, type, or composition of sand.
      • 1922, Harvey Whipple, Concrete, volumes 20-21, page 96:

        One sand was that used in cement testing with white well rounded smooth grains, passing through a 20-mesh sieve and retained on a 30-mesh sieve. The other was ordinary brown building sand, passing 40-mesh and retained on 60-mesh.

   2. (countable, often in the plural) A beach or other mass of sand.

      The Canadian tar sands are a promising source of oil.

      • 1892, James Yoxall, chapter 14, in The Lonely Pyramid:

        From east and south the danger was to be expected. Not from the uninhabited northern desert, not from the desolate sands of the unknown west, would it come.

2. (uncountable, dated) Personal courage.

   Synonym: grit

   • 1884, Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:

     You may say what you want to, but in my opinion she had more sand in her than any girl I ever see; in my opinion she was just full of sand.

   • 1968, Charles Portis, True Grit:

     He said, “I admire your sand but I believe you will find I am not liable for such claims. Let me say too that your valuation of the horse is high by about two hundred dollars.”

   • 1979, Louis L'Amour, Bendigo Shafter, →ISBN, →OL:

     There was youngsters all around him, and he stood there lookin’ at me and never turned a hair. He had sand, that Morrell.

3. (uncountable, geology) A particle from 62.5 microns to 2 mm in diameter, following the Wentworth scale.
4. A light beige colour, like that of typical sand.

   sand:  

5. (countable, obsolete) A single grain of sand.
   • 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene v]:

     One sand another.
     Not more resembles that sweet rosy lad

6. (countable, figurative) A moment or interval of time; the term or extent of one's life (referring to the sand in an hourglass).
   • c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv]:

     The sands are numbered that make up my life.

   • Cf. sands of time (idiom)
   • 1838 October, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “A Psalm of Life. […]”, in Voices of the Night, Cambridge, Mass.: […] John Owen, published 1839, →OCLC, stanza 7, page 7:

     […] And, departing, leave behind us / Footprints on the sands of time […]

7. Dried mucus in the eye's inner corner, perhaps left from sleep (sleepy sand).
   • 2018 January 3, Moran Eye Center, “Is That Morning 'Eye Gunk' Normal?”, in HealthFeed Blog‎, University of Utah Hospital, archived from the original on January 2, 2020:

     Sleep in your eyes, sleep crust, sand, eye gunk—whatever you call it, we all get it—that crusty stuff in the corners of your eyes when you wake up in the morning. "The medical term is 'rheum,' though you rarely hear it used," […]

   1. (uncountable, figurative) "sand in [someone's] eyes" (idiom):
      • Cf. Sandman, a mythical character in European folklore who puts people to sleep and encourages and inspires beautiful dreams by sprinkling magical sand onto their eyes.
   2. An excuse for tears.
      • Cf. “Sand in My Eyes”, in TV Tropes, 2023 March 1 (last accessed): “Alternative Title(s): Something In My Eye”

sand

1. Of a light beige colour, like that of typical sand.

From Middle English sanden, from the noun (see above).

sand (third-person singular simple present sands, present participle sanding, simple past and past participle sanded)

1. (transitive) To abrade the surface of (something) with sand or sandpaper in order to smooth or clean it.
2. (transitive) To cover with sand.
   • 1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter IX, in Capricornia‎, New York: D. Appleton-Century, published 1943, page 141:

     Sudden stopping, which could be effected easily by sanding the rails and reversing the driving-gear, was dangerous, because the train might telescope and overwhelm the engine.

   • 1958, Boris Pasternak, chapter 4, in Max Hayward, Manya Harari, transl., Doctor Zhivago, New York: Pantheon, page 96:

     The golden domes of churches and the freshly sanded paths in the town gardens were a glaring yellow.

3. (transitive, historical) To blot ink using sand.
   • 1859, Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities:

     The officer wrote until he had finished, read over to himself what he had written, sanded it, and handed it to Defarge, with the words "In secret."

• Appendix:Colors

Abbreviation of sand(piper).

sand (plural sands)

1. (colloquial) A sandpiper.

• ANDs, DNAs, Dans, NADS, NDAs, and's, ands, dans, nads

From Dutch zand, from Middle Dutch sant, from Old Dutch *sant, from Proto-Germanic *samdaz, from Proto-Indo-European *sámh₂dʰos.

• IPA^(key): /sant/

• Audio

  (file)

sand (plural sande, diminutive sandjie)

1. sand

• sandkorrel

• IPA^(key): /san/, [sanˀ]
• Rhymes: -anˀ
• Rhymes: -and

From Old Norse sannr, saðr, from Proto-Germanic *sanþaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁sónts (“being, existing”), the present participle of *h₁es- (“to be”).

sand

1. true

• sandelig

From Old Norse sandr, from Proto-Germanic *samdaz, from Proto-Indo-European *sámh₂dʰos.

sand n (singular definite sandet, not used in plural form)

1. sand (finely ground rock)

• sand on the Danish Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^da

sand

1. accusative of sandur

sand

1. indefinite accusative singular of sandur

• sande, sond, sonde, saunde

From Old English sand, from Proto-West Germanic *samd, from Proto-Germanic *samdaz, from Proto-Indo-European *sámh₂dʰos.

• IPA^(key): /saːnd/, /sand/, /sɔnd/, /sɔːnd/

sand (uncountable)

1. sand (finely ground rock)
2. A grain of sand.
3. A shoal, the sea floor.
4. Land, dry ground.

• quyksande

• English: sand
• Scots: sand
• Yola: zoane

• “sā̆nd, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-05.

From Old Norse sandr (“sand, sandy ground, sandbanks”), from Proto-Germanic *samdaz (“sand”), from Proto-Indo-European *sámh₂dʰos (“sand”).

• IPA^(key): /sɑn/
• Homophone: sann
• Rhymes: -ɑn

sand m (definite singular sanden)

1. sand

• “sand” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Old Norse sandr, from Proto-Germanic *samdaz, *sandaz. Akin to English sand.

• IPA^(key): /sɑnː/, /sɑnd/

sand m (definite singular sanden, indefinite plural sandar, definite plural sandane)

1. (collective, uncountable) sand
   • 1983, Marit Kaldhol, Lattermilde laken, Oslo: Samlaget, page 87:

     når tårene renn vekk i sanda

     when the tears run away into the sand

2. (countable) a sandy riverbank

   Synonym: sandøyr

• In some dialects, especially in central Eastern Norway, feminine gender is used instead. Also using the definite singular form sanda. Compare with above quotations.

• “sand” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.
• “sand”, in Norsk Ordbok: ordbok over det norske folkemålet og det nynorske skriftmålet, Oslo: Samlaget, 1950-2016
• “sand” in Ivar Aasen (1873) Norsk Ordbog med dansk Forklaring

• dans, Sand

• IPA^(key): /sɑnd/

From Proto-Germanic *sandō. See also the verb sendan.

sand f

1. action of sending, embassy, mission, deputation; message
2. sending, service, course of food, dish of food, repast, mess, victuals

• Middle English: sande, sonde

From Proto-West Germanic *samd, from Proto-Germanic *samdaz, from Proto-Indo-European *sámh₂dʰos. Compare Old Frisian sand, Old Saxon sand, Old High German sant, Old Norse sandr.

sand n

1. sand, gravel
2. sand by the sea, sands, seashore, sandy shore, beach

• sandiġ

• Middle English: sand, sande, sond, sonde, saunde
  • English: sand
  • Scots: sand
  • Yola: zoane

sand m

1. accusative singular of sandr

From Proto-West Germanic *samd, from Proto-Germanic *samdaz. Akin to Old Norse sandr.

sand n

1. beach

From Old Swedish sander, from Old Norse sandr, from Proto-Germanic *samdaz, from Proto-Indo-European *sámh₂dʰos.

• audio

  (file)

sand c

1. sand (finely ground rock)

• sand in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• sand in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• sand in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

• ands, dans