loch

[lok, lokh]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR loch ON THESAURUS.COM

noun Scot.

a lake.

a partially landlocked or protected bay; a narrow arm of the sea.

Origin of loch

1350–1400; Middle English (Scots) louch, locht < Scots Gaelic loch, Old Irish loch lake, cognate with Latin lacus, Old English lagu; see lake¹, lough

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for loch

basin, fjord, estuary, pool, pond, lagoon, reservoir, sound, canal, entrance, creek, gulf, harbor, strait, cove, bay, bayou, ingress, bight, slough

Examples from the Web for loch

Contemporary Examples of loch

People like me believe it's like the Loch Ness monster: widely spoken about, but nobody has seen it for years.
Mumbai Massacre Perpetrator's Sentence Affirmed
Dilip D’Souza
September 3, 2012
Before he started singing, he was the guitarist for the band Loch Ness.
The World's 9 Best 'Idols'
The Daily Beast Video
April 9, 2010
In “Inverness,” a botanist finds something like faith through an encounter with an obsessed Loch Ness Monster hunter.
Great Reads for the Holidays
Taylor Antrim
December 25, 2009

Historical Examples of loch

She was sentenced to be drowned next day in the Loch of Spynie.
Bygone Punishments
William Andrews
It's just like yesterday to me the day I met him, down at Bishop's Loch.
Jack Hinton
Charles James Lever
Our next trial is at Kilmichael, about three miles from Loch Gilp.
The Book-Hunter
John Hill Burton
Let us cross over again to the valley perforated by Loch Crinan.
The Book-Hunter
John Hill Burton
This occurrence drove him, for some time, from his stronghold on Loch Lomond.
Memoirs of the Jacobites of 1715 and 1745
Mrs. Thomson

British Dictionary definitions for loch

loch

noun

a Scot word for lake 1

Also called: sea loch a long narrow bay or arm of the sea in Scotland

Word Origin for loch

C14: from Gaelic

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for loch

late 14c., from Gaelic loch "lake, narrow arm of the sea," cognate with Old Irish loch "body of water, lake," Breton lagen, Anglo-Irish lough, Latin lacus (see lake (n.1)). The Loch Ness monster is first attested 1933.