shoreward

English

Etymology

From shore +‎ -ward.

Adjective

shoreward (not comparable)

1. In the direction of the shoreline, relatively speaking.
   • 1903 July, Jack London, “For the Love of a Man”, in The Call of the Wild, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC, pages 175–176:

     When he felt him grasp his tail, Buck headed for the bank, swimming with all his splendid strength. But the progress shoreward was slow; the progress down-stream amazingly rapid.

   • 1950 March, H. A. Vallance, “On Foot Across the Forth Bridge”, in Railway Magazine, page 148:

     The shoreward arms of the north and south cantilevers were built into masonry abutments.

2. Facing the shore.
   • 1883 June 30 – October 20, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter V, in The Black Arrow: A Tale of the Two Roses, London, Paris: Cassell & Company, […], published 1888, →OCLC:

     If their enemies were really on the watch, if they had beleaguered the shoreward end of the pier, he and Lord Foxham were taken in a posture of poor defence […]

   • 2020 July 29, Dr Joseph Brennan, “Railways that reach out over the waves”, in Rail, page 49, photo caption:

     Felixstowe's pier was cut short during the Second World War as an anti-invasion measure. Although its pierhead was subsequently demolished in the 1950s, a new £3 million shoreward building opened in August 2017.

Synonyms

• landward

Antonyms

• lakeward, seaward

Adverb

shoreward (not comparable)

1. Toward the shore.
   • 1832 December (indicated as 1833), Alfred Tennyson, “The Lotos-Eaters”, in Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, stanza I, page 108:

     "Courage!" he said, and pointed toward the land, / "This mounting wave will roll us shoreward soon."

Noun

shoreward (uncountable)

1. The side facing the shore.
   • 1582, chapter 2, in Nicholas Lichefield, transl., The First Booke of the Historie of the Discoverie and Conquest of the East Indias […] set foorth in the Portingale language by Hernan Lopes de Castaneda‎, London: Thomas East:

     […] when they sawe our boates comming to the shoreward, they began to runne away, with a great clamour and outcrie […]