gulf

{ } a. Of or pertaining to the family or the faction of the Guelphs. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. golfe, It. golfo, fr. Gr. ko`lpos bosom, bay, gulf, LGr. ko`lfos. ] 1. A hollow place in the earth; an abyss; a deep chasm or basin, [ 1913 Webster ]

He then surveyed
Hell and the gulf between. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed. Luke xvi. 26. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. That which swallows; the gullet. [ Obs. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. That which swallows irretrievably; a whirlpool; a sucking eddy. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

A gulf of ruin, swallowing gold. Tennyson. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Geog.) A portion of an ocean or sea extending into the land; a partially land-locked sea; as, the Gulf of Mexico. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. (Mining) A large deposit of ore in a lode. [ 1913 Webster ]

Gulf Stream (Geog.), the warm ocean current of the North Atlantic. It originates in the westward equatorial current, due to the trade winds, is deflected northward by Cape St. Roque through the Gulf of Mexico, and flows parallel to the coast of North America, turning eastward off the island of Nantucket. Its average rate of flow is said to be about two miles an hour. The similar Japan current, or Kuro-Siwo, is sometimes called the Gulf Stream of the Pacific. --
Gulf weed (Bot.), a branching seaweed (Sargassum bacciferum, or sea grape), having numerous berrylike air vessels, -- found in the Gulf Stream, in the Sargasso Sea, and elsewhere. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. A brown seaweed (Sargassum bacciferum) with rounded bladders forming dense floating masses in tropical Atlantic waters as in the Sargasso Sea.
Syn. -- sargassum, sargasso, Sargassum bacciferum. [ WordNet 1.5 ]