stranded

¹

[stran-did]

adjective

1. left helpless or without transport.

   Officials said many people remained stranded even though floodwaters were receding.

   Synonyms: abandoned, left in the lurch, forsaken, deserted

stranded

²

[stran-did]

adjective

1. composed of a specified number or kind of strands (usually used in combination).

   a five-stranded rope.

Other Word Forms

• strandedness noun
• unstranded adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of stranded¹

First recorded in 1700–10 in its literal sense “run or driven ashore,” and in its figurative sense in 1850–55; strand ¹ ( def. ) + -ed ² ( def. )

Origin of stranded²

First recorded in 1805–15; strand ² + -ed ³

Example Sentences

Authorities were scrambling to reach people stranded in floodwater-filled homes or cut off entirely by debris that has blocked roads and taken out communications and electricity.

Read more on Barron's

It says it plans to pursue all legal remedies and monetary damages related to stranded assets and expenditures on the pipeline system.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

"As these seaweed accumulations grow taller and more widespread, they risk blocking hatchlings entirely, draining their limited energy or leaving them stranded. Beyond impeding movement, sargassum may also reduce nesting space and alter incubation conditions."

Read more on Science Daily

Yet a continuing dispute over the buses that take visitors up to the mountain-top site recently saw some 1,400 stranded tourists needing to be evacuated.

Read more on BBC

The new U.S. measures have also left tens of millions of barrels of sanctioned oil stranded at sea and made shipping crude more expensive.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• aground 
• ashore 
• grounded 
• helpless 
• wrecked