different between harbour vs bight

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?h??b?/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): /?h??b??/
• Rhymes: -??(?)b?(?)

Noun

harbour (plural harbours)

1. Commonwealth of Nations standard spelling of harbor.

Derived terms

• Rosslare Harbour

Translations

Verb

harbour (third-person singular simple present harbours, present participle harbouring, simple past and past participle harboured)

1. Commonwealth of Nations standard spelling of harbor.

   The docks, which once harboured tall ships, now harbour only petty thieves.

   • The bare suspicion made it treason to harbour the person suspected.

   • 1707, Nicholas Rowe, The Royal Convert

     Nor let your gentle Breast harbor one Thought Of Outrage from the Kin.

References

• “harbour”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.

English

Etymology

From Middle English bight, bi?t, by?t (also bought, bowght, bou?t, see bought), from Old English byht (“bend, angle, corner; bay, bight”), from Proto-Germanic *buhtiz (“bend, curve”), from Proto-Indo-European *b??g?- (“to bend”). Cognate with Scots bicht (“bight”), Dutch bocht (“bend, curve”), Low German Bucht (“bend, bay”), German Bucht (“bay, bight”), Danish bugt (“bay”), Icelandic bugða (“curve”), Albanian butë (“soft, flabby”) . Compare bought.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ba?t/
• Rhymes: -a?t
• Homophones: bite, by't, byte

Noun

bight (plural bights)

1. A corner, bend, or angle; a hollow

   the bight of a horse's knee

   the bight of an elbow

   • 1905, Robert Louis Stevenson, Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes, page 166

     I spied a bight of meadow some way below the roadway in an angle of the river.

2. An area of sea lying between two promontories, larger than a bay, wider than a gulf
3. (geography) A bend or curve in a coastline, river, or other geographical feature.
4. A curve in a rope

Related terms

• Bight of Benin
• Bight of Biafra
• German Bight
• Great Australian Bight
• New York Bight

Translations

See also

• Appendix:Parts of the knot