FromMiddle Englishinland,inlond, fromOld Englishinland, equivalent toin- +land. CompareWest Frisianynlân(“inland”),GermanInland(“inland”),Danishindland(“inland”),Swedishinland(“inland”),Norwegianinnland(“inland”). Compare alsoDutchbinnenland.
inland (comparativemoreinland,superlativemostinland)
- Within theland; relativelyremote from theocean or fromopen water;interior.
- Antonyms:coastal,seaside
aninland town
1590,Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VI”, inThe Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] forWilliam Ponsonbie,→OCLC, stanza 10,page259:In this wideInland ſea, that hight by name / TheIdle lake, my wandring ſhip I row,[…]
c.1596–1598 (date written),William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, inMr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, andEd[ward] Blount, published1623,→OCLC,[Act V, scene i]:So doth the greater glory dim the less:
A substitute shines brightly as a king
Unto the king be by, and then his state
Empties itself, as doth aninland brook
Into the main of waters.
1785,William Cowper, “Book V. The Winter Morning Walk.”, inThe Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson; […],→OCLC,page221:Brutes[…] / Ruminate heedleſs of the ſcene outſpread / Beneath, beyond, and ſtretching far away / Frominland regions to the diſtant main.
1904–1906,Joseph Conrad, “The Nursery of the Craft”, inThe Mirror of the Sea, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.; London:Harper & Brothers, published October 1906,→OCLC,pages254–255:Happy he who, like Ulysses, has made an adventurous voyage; and there is no such sea for adventurous voyages as the Mediterranean—theinland sea which the ancients looked upon as so vast and so full of wonders.
- Limited to the land, or to inland routes; not passing on, or over, the sea.
inland commerce
inland navigation
inland transportation
- Confined to onecountry orstate;domestic; notforeign.
aninland bill of exchange
- (archaic) Of a sophisticated background, especially as relates to a royal court or national capital.
inland bred
c.1598–1600 (date written),William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, inMr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, andEd[ward] Blount, published1623,→OCLC,[Act II, scene vii]:You touch'd my vein at first: the thorny point
of bare distress hath ta'en from me the show
of smooth civility; yet am Iinland
bred, and know some nurture.
c.1598–1600 (date written),William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, inMr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, andEd[ward] Blount, published1623,→OCLC,[Act III, scene ii]:I have been told so of many; but indeed an old religious
uncle of mine taught me to speak, who was in his youth aninland
man; one that knew courtship too well, for there he fell in love.
confined to a country or state
inland (pluralinlands)
- The interior part of a country.
1599 (date written),William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, inMr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, andEd[ward] Blount, published1623,→OCLC,[Act I, scene ii]:a wall sufficient to defend
Ourinland from the pilfering borderers.
interior part of a country
inland (comparativemoreinland,superlativemostinland)
- Into, or towards, the interior of the land, away from the coast.
1836,Sharon Turner,The History of England […] :The greatest waves of population have rolledinland from the east.
