Library / English Dictionary

HARBOUR

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A place of refuge and comfort and security

Synonyms:

harbor; harbour

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("harbour" is a kind of...):

asylum; refuge; sanctuary (a shelter from danger or hardship)

Derivation:

harbour (secretly shelter (as of fugitives or criminals))

Sense 2

Meaning:

A sheltered port where ships can take on or discharge cargo

Synonyms:

harbor; harbour; haven; seaport

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Hypernyms ("harbour" is a kind of...):

port (a place (seaport or airport) where people and merchandise can enter or leave a country)

Meronyms (parts of "harbour"):

dock; dockage; docking facility (landing in a harbor next to a pier where ships are loaded and unloaded or repaired; may have gates to let water in or out)

landing; landing place (structure providing a place where boats can land people or goods)

anchorage; anchorage ground (place for vessels to anchor)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "harbour"):

coaling station (a seaport where ships can take on supplies of coal)

port of call (any port where a ship stops except its home port)

Instance hyponyms:

Caesarea (an ancient seaport in northwestern Israel; an important Roman city in ancient Palestine)

Pearl Harbor (a harbor on Oahu to the west of Honolulu; location of a United States naval base that was attacked by the Japanese on 7 Dec 1941)

Boston Harbor (the seaport at Boston)

Holonyms ("harbour" is a part of...):

seafront (the waterfront of a seaside town)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Maintain (a theory, thoughts, or feelings)

Example:

harbor a resentment

Synonyms:

entertain; harbor; harbour; hold; nurse

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Hypernyms (to "harbour" is one way to...):

experience; feel (undergo an emotional sensation or be in a particular state of mind)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Hold back a thought or feeling about

Example:

She is harboring a grudge against him

Synonyms:

harbor; harbour; shield

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Hypernyms (to "harbour" is one way to...):

conceal; hide (prevent from being seen or discovered)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Sense 3

Meaning:

Keep in one's possession; of animals

Synonyms:

harbor; harbour

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "harbour" is one way to...):

hold on; keep (retain possession of)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 4

Meaning:

Secretly shelter (as of fugitives or criminals)

Synonyms:

harbor; harbour

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Hypernyms (to "harbour" is one way to...):

shelter (provide shelter for)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

harbour (a place of refuge and comfort and security)

harbourage ((nautical) a place of refuge (as for a ship))

Credits

 Context examples: 

I wish him very happy; and I am so sure of his always doing his duty, that though now he may harbour some regret, in the end he must become so.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Elizabeth was shocked to think that, however incapable of such coarseness of expression herself, the coarseness of the sentiment was little other than her own breast had harboured and fancied liberal!

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Previous space missions have already identified Europa as one of the likeliest destinations for harbouring life in our solar system, most notably because of the large seas of liquid water underneath its surface.

(Icy Warning for Space Missions to Jupiter's Moon, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Pray explain everything to his satisfaction; or, if he still harbours any doubt, a line from himself to me, or a call at Putney when next in town, might set all to rights.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

It was about nine miles long and five across, shaped, you might say, like a fat dragon standing up, and had two fine land-locked harbours, and a hill in the centre part marked “The Spy-glass.”

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

One said she lived in the South Foreland Light, and had singed her whiskers by doing so; another, that she was made fast to the great buoy outside the harbour, and could only be visited at half-tide; a third, that she was locked up in Maidstone jail for child-stealing; a fourth, that she was seen to mount a broom in the last high wind, and make direct for Calais.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

If these iron-rich minerals harbour traces of life on Earth, then they may hold clues to past microbial life on the red planet.

(Red Planet May Have Harbored Life in Past, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

It descends so steeply over the harbour that part of the bank has fallen away, and some of the graves have been destroyed.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The Thrush went out of harbour this morning.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

It was a very dark night, as the moon had not yet risen; they did not land at the harbour, but, as they had been accustomed, at a creek about two miles below.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)