“strands” is a form of
strand
/ˈstɹænd/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms strands stranding stranded strond
- noun The shore or beach of the sea or ocean. “Grand Strand”
- noun (poetic, archaic or regional) The shore or beach of a lake or river.
- noun A small brook or rivulet.
- noun (UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) A passage for water; gutter.
- noun A street.
- verb (transitive, nautical) To run aground; to beach.
- verb (transitive, figuratively) To leave (someone) in a difficult situation; to abandon or desert.
- verb (baseball) To cause the third out of an inning to be made, leaving a runner on base. “Jones pops up; that's going to strand a pair.”
- verb (transitive, grammar) To leave an element (e.g., an adposition) without its complement adjacent to it.
- noun Each of the strings which, twisted together, make up a yarn, rope or cord.
- noun A string.
- noun An individual length of any fine, string-like substance. “strand of spaghetti”
- noun (electronics) A group of wires, usually twisted or braided.
- noun (broadcasting) A series of programmes on a particular theme or linked subject.
- noun (figurative) An element in a composite whole; a sequence of linked events or facts; a logical thread.
- noun (genetics) A nucleotide chain.
- noun (formal) A specialization of a senior high school track.
- verb (transitive) To break a strand of (a rope).
- verb (transitive) To form by uniting strands.
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
beach abandon desert track chain string fibril filament maroon ground run aground
Etymology
* From Middle English strand, strond, from Old English strand (“strand, sea-shore, shore”), from Proto-West Germanic *strand, from Proto-Germanic *strandō (“edge, rim, shore”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)trAnt- (“strand, border, field”), from Proto-Indo-European *sterh₃- (“to broaden, spread out”). Cognate with West Frisian strân, German Strand (“beach”), Danish, Dutch, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish strand (“beach”), Faroese strond (“beach”), Icelandic strönd (“beach”).
* (street): Perhaps from the similarity of shape.
Origin uncertain. Cognate with Scots stran, strawn, strand (“strand”). Perhaps the same as strand ("rivulet, stream, gutter"; see Etymology 1 above); or from Middle English *stran, from Old French estran (“a rope, cord”), from Middle High German stren, strene (“skein, strand”), from Old High German streno, from Proto-West Germanic *strenō, from Proto-Germanic *strinô (“strip, strand”), from Proto-Indo-European *strēy-, *ster- (“strip, line, streak, ray, stripe, row”); related to Dutch streng (“skein, hank of thread, strand, string”), German Strähne (“skein, hank of thread, strand of hair”). Compare also Old High German stranga (“strand of hair”), modern German Strang (“strand, thread, cord”).
So called after the north strand (i.e. shore) of the river Thames.
Webster’s 1913
- noun One of the twists, or strings, as of fibers, wires, etc., of which a rope is composed.
- verb To break a strand of (a rope).
- noun The shore, especially the beach of a sea, ocean, or large lake; rarely, the margin of a navigable river. Chaucer. Strand birds.
- verb To drive on a strand; hence, to run aground; as, to strand a ship.
Etymology [Probably fr. D. streen a skein; akin to G. strähne a skein, lock of hair, strand of a rope.]
Etymology [AS. strand; akin to D., G., Sw., & Dan. strand, Icel. strönd.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “strand”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details