barrier island
a broadened barrier beach, habitable in places, that provides a measure of protection for the mainland, as during hurricanes and tidal waves.
Words Nearby barrier island
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use barrier island in a sentence
In Mississippi, you’ll need to know someone with a boat who will take you out to one of the barrier islands, and even then you might strike out.
I checked the forecast, and it looked like the Isle of Palms, a barrier island 30 miles east of Charleston, was the best bet.
We’d be traveling from our home in Atlanta to Hunting Island State Park, a barrier island six hours and 300 miles southeast on the coast of South Carolina, where we’d spend a few days camping and paddleboarding.
The 12-story condo tower that crashed down early Thursday near Miami Beach was built on reclaimed wetlands and is perched on a barrier island facing an ocean that has risen about a foot in the past century due to climate change.
Before condo collapse, rising seas have long pressured Miami coastal properties | Josh Partlow, Darryl Fears, Jim Morrison, Jon Swaine | June 25, 2021 | Washington PostChamplain Towers was typical of the oceanfront halfway up the barrier island of Miami Beach — mid-rise buildings erected in the 1980s to serve the older folks who were moving up from then-decaying South Beach and down from the frigid North.
Asleep in their beachfront condos, they vanished into a mountain of rubble | Lori Rozsa, Marc Fisher, Derek Hawkins, Silvia Foster-Frau | June 24, 2021 | Washington Post
Long Beach, it should be noted, is a narrow barrier island three feet above sea level and prone to flooding.
The Little barrier island, though possessing no harbour, has several yachting anchorages.
Yachting Vol. 2 | Various.He did not visit the barrier island or the Laguna Madre de Tamaulipas.
Vertebrates from the Barrier Island of Tamaulipas, Mxico | Robert K SelanderDr. Marshall Johnston kindly identified specimens of plants from the barrier island.
Vertebrates from the Barrier Island of Tamaulipas, Mxico | Robert K SelanderThis subspecies is presumably confined in distribution to the barrier island of Tamaulipas.
Vertebrates from the Barrier Island of Tamaulipas, Mxico | Robert K SelanderThis species has not been reported previously from the barrier island of Tamaulipas.
Vertebrates from the Barrier Island of Tamaulipas, Mxico | Robert K Selander
Scientific definitions for barrier island
[ băr′ē-ər ]
A long, narrow sand island that is parallel to the mainland and serves to protect the coast from erosion. Barrier islands typically have dunes along the exposed outer side, zones of vegetation in the interior, and swampy areas along the inner lagoon.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Cultural definitions for barrier island
Any low sandy island that is parallel to the mainland and protects it from storms. (See Cape Hatteras.)
Notes for barrier island
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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