mid-oceann.adj.adv.
/mɪdˈəʊʃn/, U.S. /ˌmɪdˈoʊʃ(ə)n/ A. n.
The middle of an ocean. Frequently in in mid-ocean.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > water > sea or ocean > [noun] > ocean, open sea, or deep sea
room seaeOE
seawaya1000
the deepc1000
deptha1382
oceana1387
mid-sea?a1425
profound?a1425
main seaa1530
high seas1566
main1579
main flood1596
the deep1598
deep sea1626
dipsey1626
mid-ocean1697
blue water1803
haaf1809
salt chuck1868
wide1916
1697 J. Dryden tr. Virgil Æneis i, in tr. Virgil Wks. 206 Fierce Eurus..in mid Ocean left them moor'd a-land.
1850 N. Hawthorne Scarlet Let. xix. 257 The mid-ocean shall take it from my hand, and swallow it up for ever!
1881 Athenæum 15 Jan. 97/3 Very interesting is the account of the pelagic fishes, or those which inhabit the mid ocean.
1905 Smart Set Sept. 116/2 It was as surely and as irrevocably lost as though it had sunk into a thousand fathoms of midocean.
1930 S. Teasdale Stars To-night 20 Midocean like a pale blue morning-glory Opened wide, wide.
1938 Times Lit. Suppl. 3 Sept. 572/4 His repairs in mid-ocean to his small auxiliary engine.
1990 Illustr. London News Christmas No. 103/4 The Mary Celeste's crew, asserted a contributor to the British Journal of Astrology, had been dematerialized in mid-ocean.
B. adj. (attributive).
Situated or occurring in the middle of an ocean. mid-ocean ridge n. any of the mountainous ridges (several kilometres high and over a thousand wide) that rise abruptly from the abyssal plain in the middle of each ocean basin and form a connected worldwide system, marking the site of magmatic upwelling associated with sea-floor spreading and having a central rift that overlies earthquake foci along much of their length.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > water > sea or ocean > region of sea or ocean > [noun] > undersea ridge
ridge system1819
oceanic ridge1915
sill1933
ridge1944
mid-ocean ridge1961
ocean ridge1961
the world > the earth > water > sea or ocean > region of sea or ocean > [adjective] > undersea ridge
mid-ocean ridge1961
1859 C. Darwin Origin of Species xi. 363 Icebergs formerly landed their rocky burthens on the shores of these mid-ocean islands.
1956 Geophysical Monogr. 1 75/1 Mid-ocean islands.
1961 M. Ewing & M. Landisman in M. Sears Oceanogr. i. 5 The remaining 18% [of the earth's surface]..contains parts of the mid-ocean ridge system.
1968 M. J. Keen Introd. Marine Geol. iii. 46 The abyssal plains may be cut..by mid-ocean canyons.
1971 J. R. Heirtzler in A. E. Maxwell Sea IV. i. iii. 99 The Red Sea..is bisected by the mid-ocean ridge which passes south through the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.
1977 Navy News July 18/4 Among the year's new charts..were..a 27-chart series of the mid-ocean areas; [etc.].
1996 New Scientist 26 Nov. (Unknown Oceans Suppl.) 17/3 The five-year programme..will focus on one well-studied field of hot vents at 9° North on a stretch of mid-ocean ridge called the East Pacific Rise.
C. adv.
poetic. In mid-ocean.
ΚΠ
1930 S. Spender 20 Poems 3 Like Icarus mid-ocean-drowned.
1971 A. Sexton Transformations 32 This doctor, this thirteenth but chosen, cured on straw or midocean.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.adj.adv.1697