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Sand   /sænd/   Listen
noun
Sand  n.  
1.
Fine particles of stone, esp. of siliceous stone, but not reduced to dust; comminuted stone in the form of loose grains, which are not coherent when wet. "That finer matter, called sand, is no other than very small pebbles."
2.
A single particle of such stone. (R.)
3.
The sand in the hourglass; hence, a moment or interval of time; the term or extent of one's life. "The sands are numbered that make up my life."
4.
pl. Tracts of land consisting of sand, like the deserts of Arabia and Africa; also, extensive tracts of sand exposed by the ebb of the tide. "The Libyan sands." "The sands o' Dee."
5.
Courage; pluck; grit. (Slang)
Sand badger (Zool.), the Japanese badger (Meles ankuma).
Sand bag.
(a)
A bag filled with sand or earth, used for various purposes, as in fortification, for ballast, etc.
(b)
A long bag filled with sand, used as a club by assassins.
Sand ball, soap mixed with sand, made into a ball for use at the toilet.
Sand bath.
(a)
(Chem.) A vessel of hot sand in a laboratory, in which vessels that are to be heated are partially immersed.
(b)
A bath in which the body is immersed in hot sand.
Sand bed, a thick layer of sand, whether deposited naturally or artificially; specifically, a thick layer of sand into which molten metal is run in casting, or from a reducing furnace.
Sand birds (Zool.), a collective name for numerous species of limicoline birds, such as the sandpipers, plovers, tattlers, and many others; called also shore birds.
Sand blast, a process of engraving and cutting glass and other hard substances by driving sand against them by a steam jet or otherwise; also, the apparatus used in the process.
Sand box.
(a)
A box with a perforated top or cover, for sprinkling paper with sand.
(b)
A box carried on locomotives, from which sand runs on the rails in front of the driving wheel, to prevent slipping.
Sand-box tree (Bot.), a tropical American tree (Hura crepitans). Its fruit is a depressed many-celled woody capsule which, when completely dry, bursts with a loud report and scatters the seeds.
Sand bug (Zool.), an American anomuran crustacean (Hippa talpoidea) which burrows in sandy seabeaches. It is often used as bait by fishermen.
Sand canal (Zool.), a tubular vessel having a calcareous coating, and connecting the oral ambulacral ring with the madreporic tubercle. It appears to be excretory in function.
Sand cock (Zool.), the redshank. (Prov. Eng.)
Sand collar. (Zool.) Same as Sand saucer, below.
Sand crab. (Zool.)
(a)
The lady crab.
(b)
A land crab, or ocypodian.
Sand crack (Far.), a crack extending downward from the coronet, in the wall of a horse's hoof, which often causes lameness.
Sand cricket (Zool.), any one of several species of large terrestrial crickets of the genus Stenophelmatus and allied genera, native of the sandy plains of the Western United States.
Sand cusk (Zool.), any ophidioid fish.
Sand dab (Zool.), a small American flounder (Limanda ferruginea); called also rusty dab. The name is also applied locally to other allied species.
Sand darter (Zool.), a small etheostomoid fish of the Ohio valley (Ammocrypta pellucida).
Sand dollar (Zool.), any one of several species of small flat circular sea urchins, which live on sandy bottoms, especially Echinarachnius parma of the American coast.
Sand drift, drifting sand; also, a mound or bank of drifted sand.
Sand eel. (Zool.)
(a)
A lant, or launce.
(b)
A slender Pacific Ocean fish of the genus Gonorhynchus, having barbels about the mouth.
Sand flag, sandstone which splits up into flagstones.
Sand flea. (Zool.)
(a)
Any species of flea which inhabits, or breeds in, sandy places, especially the common dog flea.
(b)
The chigoe.
(c)
Any leaping amphipod crustacean; a beach flea, or orchestian. See Beach flea, under Beach.
Sand flood, a vast body of sand borne along by the wind.
Sand fluke. (Zool.)
(a)
The sandnecker.
(b)
The European smooth dab (Pleuronectes microcephalus); called also kitt, marysole, smear dab, town dab.
Sand fly (Zool.), any one of several species of small dipterous flies of the genus Simulium, abounding on sandy shores, especially Simulium nocivum of the United States. They are very troublesome on account of their biting habits. Called also no-see-um, punky, and midge.
Sand gall. (Geol.) See Sand pipe, below.
Sand grass (Bot.), any species of grass which grows in sand; especially, a tufted grass (Triplasis purpurea) with numerous bearded joints, and acid awl-shaped leaves, growing on the Atlantic coast.
Sand grouse (Zool.), any one of many species of Old World birds belonging to the suborder Pterocletes, and resembling both grouse and pigeons. Called also rock grouse, rock pigeon, and ganga. They mostly belong to the genus Pterocles, as the common Indian species (Pterocles exustus). The large sand grouse (Pterocles arenarius), the painted sand grouse (Pterocles fasciatus), and the pintail sand grouse (Pterocles alchata) are also found in India.
Sand hill, a hill of sand; a dune.
Sand-hill crane (Zool.), the American brown crane (Grus Mexicana).
Sand hopper (Zool.), a beach flea; an orchestian.
Sand hornet (Zool.), a sand wasp.
Sand lark. (Zool.)
(a)
A small lark (Alaudala raytal), native of India.
(b)
A small sandpiper, or plover, as the ringneck, the sanderling, and the common European sandpiper.
(c)
The Australian red-capped dotterel (Aegialophilus ruficapillus); called also red-necked plover.
Sand launce (Zool.), a lant, or launce.
Sand lizard (Zool.), a common European lizard (Lacerta agilis).
Sand martin (Zool.), the bank swallow.
Sand mole (Zool.), the coast rat.
Sand monitor (Zool.), a large Egyptian lizard (Monitor arenarius) which inhabits dry localities.
Sand mouse (Zool.), the dunlin. (Prov. Eng.)
Sand myrtle. (Bot.) See under Myrtle.
Sand partridge (Zool.), either of two small Asiatic partridges of the genus Ammoperdix. The wings are long and the tarsus is spurless. One species (Ammoperdix Heeji) inhabits Palestine and Arabia. The other species (Ammoperdix Bonhami), inhabiting Central Asia, is called also seesee partridge, and teehoo.
Sand picture, a picture made by putting sand of different colors on an adhesive surface.
Sand pike. (Zool.)
(a)
The sauger.
(b)
The lizard fish.
Sand pillar, a sand storm which takes the form of a whirling pillar in its progress in desert tracts like those of the Sahara and Mongolia.
Sand pipe (Geol.), a tubular cavity, from a few inches to several feet in depth, occurring especially in calcareous rocks, and often filled with gravel, sand, etc.; called also sand gall.
Sand pride (Zool.), a small British lamprey now considered to be the young of larger species; called also sand prey.
Sand pump, in artesian well boring, a long, slender bucket with a valve at the bottom for raising sand from the well.
Sand rat (Zool.), the pocket gopher.
Sand rock, a rock made of cemented sand.
Sand runner (Zool.), the turnstone.
Sand saucer (Zool.), the mass of egg capsules, or oothecae, of any mollusk of the genus Natica and allied genera. It has the shape of a bottomless saucer, and is coated with fine sand; called also sand collar.
Sand screw (Zool.), an amphipod crustacean (Lepidactylis arenarius), which burrows in the sandy seabeaches of Europe and America.
Sand shark (Zool.), an American shark (Odontaspis littoralis) found on the sandy coasts of the Eastern United States; called also gray shark, and dogfish shark.
Sand skink (Zool.), any one of several species of Old World lizards belonging to the genus Seps; as, the ocellated sand skink (Seps ocellatus) of Southern Europe.
Sand skipper (Zool.), a beach flea, or orchestian.
Sand smelt (Zool.), a silverside.
Sand snake. (Zool.)
(a)
Any one of several species of harmless burrowing snakes of the genus Eryx, native of Southern Europe, Africa, and Asia, especially Eryx jaculus of India and Eryx Johnii, used by snake charmers.
(b)
Any innocuous South African snake of the genus Psammophis, especially Psammophis sibilans.
Sand snipe (Zool.), the sandpiper.
Sand star (Zool.), an ophiurioid starfish living on sandy sea bottoms; a brittle star.
Sand storm, a cloud of sand driven violently by the wind.
Sand sucker, the sandnecker.
Sand swallow (Zool.), the bank swallow. See under Bank.
Sand trap, (Golf) a shallow pit on a golf course having a layer of sand in it, usually located near a green, and designed to function as a hazard, due to the difficulty of hitting balls effectively from such a position.
Sand tube, a tube made of sand. Especially:
(a)
A tube of vitrified sand, produced by a stroke of lightning; a fulgurite.
(b)
(Zool.) Any tube made of cemented sand.
(c)
(Zool.) In starfishes, a tube having calcareous particles in its wall, which connects the oral water tube with the madreporic plate.
Sand viper. (Zool.) See Hognose snake.
Sand wasp (Zool.), any one of numerous species of hymenopterous insects belonging to the families Pompilidae and Spheridae, which dig burrows in sand. The female provisions the nest with insects or spiders which she paralyzes by stinging, and which serve as food for her young.



verb
Sand  v. t.  (past & past part. sanded; pres. part. sanding)  
1.
To sprinkle or cover with sand.
2.
To drive upon the sand. (Obs.)
3.
To bury (oysters) beneath drifting sand or mud.
4.
To mix with sand for purposes of fraud; as, to sand sugar. (Colloq.)






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Sand" Quotes from Famous Books



... out.... But I should have had to meet the veteran.... That thought pulled me up. One tempestuous evening—the February wind was howling angrily outside, the frozen snow tapped at the window from time to time like coarse sand flung by a mighty hand—I was sitting in my room, trying to read. My servant came, and, with a mysterious air, announced that a lady wished to see me. I was surprised... ladies did not visit me, especially at such a late hour; ...
— The Jew And Other Stories • Ivan Turgenev

... cannot but be pleasure, participating as it does in the nature of its object. It is as it were the interpenetration of a diviner nature through our own; but its footsteps are like those of a wind over the sea, which the coming calm erases, and whose traces remain only, as on the wrinkled sand which paves it. These and corresponding conditions of being are experienced principally by those of the most delicate sensibility and the most enlarged imagination; and the state of mind produced by them is at war with ...
— English Critical Essays - Nineteenth Century • Various

... a more refracting to a less refracting medium; but in this case, when the obliquity is sufficient, it always occurs. The mirage of the desert, and other phantasmal appearances in the atmosphere, are in part due to it. When, for example, the sun heats an expanse of sand, the layer of air in contact with the sand becomes lighter and less refracting than the air above it: consequently, the rays from a distant object, striking very obliquely on the surface of the heated stratum, are sometimes totally reflected upwards, ...
— Six Lectures on Light - Delivered In The United States In 1872-1873 • John Tyndall

... hotel—which sounds handsome—he left him no guests; for at about the period of the old man's death the old stage-coach died also. Apoplexy carried off one, and steam the other. Thus, by a sudden swerve in the tide of progress, the tavern at the Corners found itself high and dry, like a wreck on a sand-bank. Shortly after this event, or maybe contemporaneously, there was some attempt to build a town at Green-ton; but it apparently failed, if eleven cellars choked up with debris and overgrown with burdocks are any indication of failure. The farm, however, was ...
— Miss Mehetabel's Son • Thomas Bailey Aldrich

... other party, if other there was, might also be on the wrong side; and two wrongs might make a right. That was not likely. The same motive which had drawn us to the right-hand side of the road, viz., the soft beaten sand, as contrasted with the paved centre, would prove attractive to others. Our lamps, still lighted, would give the impression of vigilance on our part. And every creature that met us, would rely upon ...
— Miscellaneous Essays • Thomas de Quincey


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