- land */*/*/
- I UK [lænd] / US
noun
Word forms "land":
singular land plural landsCollocations:
Country is the usual word for talking about a large area of land with recognized political borders, like Italy, Mexico, or Japan: Brazil is a big country. ♦ the countries of Europe. ♦ Most of the country will have rain tomorrow.
Land can mean the same as country, but it is often a literary word. Native land is sometimes used to describe the country someone belongs to: She longed to return to her native land. People call a place a land when they want to be mysterious or to sound emotional or old-fashioned: It is the land of my ancestors. ♦ My story begins in a land far, far away.1) [uncountable] an area of ground, especially one that is used for a particular purpose such as farming or buildingacres of agricultural land
The land around here is quite flat.
a) [countable/uncountable] an area where the soil has particular qualitiesMost of the world's fertile land is already being cultivated.
b) [uncountable] an area that someone owns, often including the buildings on it. You can also refer to someone's lands, and this has the same meaningThe company bought the land last year.
Some of his land had been flooded.
Their ancient tribal lands have been taken away.
a vacant plot of land (= piece of land)
2) [uncountable] the part of the Earth's surface that is not the seaThe boxes eventually drifted to land after being in the sea for a week.
Swans are graceful swimmers, but they're clumsy on land.
3)a) [countable] literary a country, or a regionthe mountains of distant lands
land of:The news quickly spread throughout the land.
a land of wondrous wildlife and sweeping beauty
Many people emigrated to Canada believing that it was a land of opportunity.
b) an imaginary placethe land of make-believe
He's living in a fantasy land.
••See:country, land of milk and honey, the land of Nod4) the land the countryside considered as a place to grow your own food or live in a simple healthy waygo back to the land:They left the city and went back to the land to raise their children.
•find out/see how the land lies
— to find out about a situation before deciding what to doYou should see how the land lies before going into business on your own.
See:
II UK [lænd] / US verb
Word forms "land":
present tense I/you/we/they land he/she/it lands present participle landing past tense landed past participle landed1) [intransitive] to arrive at a place by plane or boatIt was after midnight by the time we landed.
a) [transitive] if a plane or boat lands people or goods somewhere, it brings them thereMotorboats landed supplies along the beaches.
b) [intransitive] to arrive somewhere, especially unexpectedly or in a way that causes problemsland on/in:The whole family landed on my doorstep for the weekend.
Thousands of letters a week were landing on his desk.
2) [intransitive] if an aircraft lands, it comes down to the groundThe plane landed a couple of hours before dawn.
a) [transitive] to bring a plane down to the groundThe pilot was able to land the plane safely.
b) [intransitive] to come down to the ground or to a surface after moving or falling through the airland on/in/under:The hawk landed on a fence post near the road.
She was uninjured after landing in the snow.
3) [transitive] to get something that you wanted, especially a job or opportunityland a job:At the age of 19 she landed a small role in a West End play.
He was hoping to land the job on a permanent basis.
4) land or land up[intransitive/transitive] informal to be in an unpleasant situation or place, or to cause someone to be in an unpleasant situation or place land in:land someone in something:She landed up in hospital with a broken leg.
His recklessness could land him in real trouble.
5) [transitive] to catch a fish and pull it out of the water•land a punch/blow
— to succeed in hitting someonePhrasal verbs:He landed a punch on Jackson's nose.
- land on- land upSee:foot I
English dictionary. 2014.
