sand dune

English

Noun

sand dune (plural sand dunes)

1. (geology) A large, semi-permanent mound of windblown sand, held together by specialized plants, common along seashores and in deserts.
   • 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 86:

     So enfeebled was resolution in him that he could only palter at a fatuous picture of himself carrying Podson bodily over the lagoon and dumping him on the sand dunes.

   • 1952 August, “Wind Velocity Records at Dawlish”, in Railway Magazine, page 545:

     An anemometer constructed by the Soil Mechanics Laboratory of the Western Region, British Railways, has been installed at Dawlish Warren, near Exeter, to obtain a record of the velocity (speed and direction) of the wind. This information is used for the study of the effects of wind erosion on the sand dunes which protect the railway from the sea at that point.

Synonyms

• dune
• towan (Cornwall)

Translations

mound of windblown sand

Chinese: Mandarin: 沙丘 (zh) (shāqiū) Estonian: liivaluide Finnish: hiekkadyyni French: dune de sable f German: Wanderdüne (de) f Greek: αμμόλοφος (el) m (ammólofos) Hungarian: homokdűne (hu) Korean: 둔치 (dunchi), 모래톱 (moraetop), 사구(砂丘) (ko) (sagu) Maori: tāhuahua Norwegian: Bokmål: sanddyne (no) m Nynorsk: sanddyne f Plautdietsch: Sauntdien f Portuguese: duna de areia f Russian: песчаная дю́на f (pesčanaja djúna) Spanish: duna de arena f Swahili: tuta la mchanga Swedish: sanddyn (sv) c Thai: เนินทราย (nəən-saai)

Anagrams

• dunesand, unsadden, unsanded