Lānd1, n.
n. [A-S., Goth., D., Icel., Sw., Dan., & N. H. Ger. land, O. Sax. & O. Fries. land, lond, M. H. Ger. & O. H. Ger. lant, originally a Celtic word.]
Sense 1. Earth, or the solid matter which constitutes the fixed part of the surface of the globe, in distinction from the waters, which constitute the fluid or movable part.
They turn their heads to sea, their sterns to land. Dryden.
Sense 2. Any portion, large or small, of the solid surface of the globe, considered as set apart or belonging to an individual, or a people, as a country, estate, farm, or tract.
Go, view the land, even Jericho. Josh. ii. 1.
Sense 3. Ground; soil, or the superficial part of the earth in respect to its nature or quality; as, good land; poor land; moist or dry land.
Sense 4. The inhabitants of a country or region; a nation or people.
These answers, in the silent night received, The king himself divulged; the land believed. Dryden.
Sense 5. The main land, in distinction from an adjacent island.
Sense 6. The ground or floor.
Herself upon the land she did prostrate. Spenser.
Sense 7. (Agr.) The ground left unplowed between furrows; especially, any one of several portions, usually of a rectangular or oblong form, into which a field is divided for convenience in plowing.
Sense 8. (Law.) Any ground, soil or earth whatsoever, as meadows, pastures, woods, &c., and every thing annexed to it, whether by nature, as trees, water, &c., or by the hand of man, as buildings, fences, &c.; real estate. Kent. Bouvier. Burrill.
Land is prefixed to some words forming compounds which need no special explanation; as, land-agent, land-animal, land-estate, land-fowl, land-monster, land-nymph, land-owner, land-rent, land-surveyor, land-worker, and the like.
Land of the leal, the place of the faithful or blessed; heaven. [Scot.]—To make land, or to make the land (Naut.), to discover land from the sea.—To set the land, to see by the compass how it bears from the ship.—To shut in the land, to lose sight of the land left, as by the intervention of a point or promontory.