different between shoreward vs shreward

English

Etymology

shore +? -ward

Adjective

shoreward (not comparable)

1. In the direction of the shoreline, relatively speaking.
   • 1903, Jack London, The Call of the Wild, Chapter 6,^[1]

     When he felt him grasp his tail, Buck headed for the bank, swimming with all his splendid strength. But the progress shoreward was slow; the progress down-stream amazingly rapid.

2. Facing the shore.
   • 1905, Robert Louis Stevenson, The Black Arrow: A Tale of the Two Roses, Chapter 5,[2]

     If their enemies were really on the watch, if they had beleaguered the shoreward end of the pier, he and Lord Foxham were taken in a posture of poor defence […]

Synonyms

• landward

Antonyms

• lakeward, seaward

Adverb

shoreward (not comparable)

1. Toward the shore.
   • 1832, Alfred Tennyson, The Lotos-Eaters,^[3]

     “Courage!” he said, and pointed toward the land,

     “This mounting wave will roll us shoreward soon.”

Noun

shoreward (uncountable)

1. The side facing the shore.
   • 1582, Nicholas Lichefield (translator), The First Booke of the Historie of the Discoverie and Conquest of the East Indias […] set foorth in the Portingale language by Hernan Lopes de Castaneda, London: Thomas East, Chapter 2,^[4]

     […] when they sawe our boates comming to the shoreward, they began to runne away, with a great clamour and outcrie […]

English

Etymology

Derived from shrew, the animal.

Noun

shreward (plural shrewards)

1. (archaic) A rascal; a scoundrel.