land (1), lond

[A. S. land; cogn. with Icel., Sw., Dan., Ger., and Goth. land; M. H. Ger.lant; Fr. lande; Ital. & Sp. land a =a heath.] I. Ordinary Language: 1. The solid portion of the earth as distinct from the oceans, seas, rivers, lakes, .; the solid or fixed part of the globe as distinct from the fluid or movable part; earth. "And God sayde: let ye waters that are under heaven gather themselves into one place that the dry land may appere."-Genesis i. (1551.) 2. A country, a district, a region; any part of the globe considered as belonging to a particular nation or people. "Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land of Israel."-2 Kings v. 4. 3. The superficial part of the globe as considered in respect to its nature or qualities; the ground, the soil; as, poor or good land , wet land . *4. The ground; the surface of the earth. "[Eioneus] rolled with limbs relaxed along the land." Pope: Homer's Iliad, vii. 8. *5. A nation, a people; the inhabitants of any particular region or country. 6. Landed property. "Land includes in its signification any ground, soil, or earth whatsoever; as arable, meadows, pastures, woods, moors, waters, marshes, furzes, and heath. Water being here mentioned as land, may seem a kind of solecism; but such is the language of the law: and therefore I cannot bring an action to recover po e ion of a pool or other piece of water by the name of water only: but I must bring an action for the land that lies at the bottom, and must call it twenty acres of land covered with water. For water is a movable, wandering thing, and must of nece ity continue common by the law of nature; but the land, which that water covers, is permanent, fixed, and immovable; and of this the law will take notice, but not of the other. Land has also, in its legal significations, an indefinite extent, upward as well as downward. Cujus est solum, ejus est usque ad cælum, is the maxim of the law, therefore no man may erect any building, or the like, to overhang another's land ; and downward, whatever is in a direct line between the surface of any land and the center of the earth, belongs to the owner of the surface."- Black stone: Comment., bk. ii., ch. 2. (2) Scots Law : A house consisting of different stories; espec., a building including different tene ments. 5. Milling : That part of the face of a mill-stone which is not furrowed; that which intervenes be tween the furrows. 6. Naut .: Thelap of the strakes in a clincher-built boat; also called landing. 7. Steam-eng in.: The unperforated portion of the face-plate of a slide-valve. (1) To make land , to make the land : Naut.: To come in sight of land as the ship approaches it from the sea. (2) the land : Naut.: To sail from the land until it begins to appear lower and smaller by reason of the convexity of the surface of the globe. (3) To raise the land: Naut.: To sail toward the land, so that it appears to rise and become greater and more elevated. (4) To set the land: Naut.: To see by the compa how the land bears from the ship. (5) To shut in the land : To lose sight of the land by the intervention of a point or promontory. (6) Land of the leal : The land of the faithful or ble ed; heaven. "We'll meet and aye be fain, In the land o' the leal." Lady Nairne: Land o' the Leal. Land signifies an open, even space, and strictly refers to the earth. Country signifies lands adjoining so as to form one portion. The term land , therefore, properly excludes the idea of habitation; the term country excludes that of the earth, or the parts of which it is composed: hence we speak of the land , as rich or poor, according to what it yields; of a country , as rich or poor, according to what its inhabitants po e . The word land may sometimes be put for any portion of land that is under a government; as, the land of liberty; the country may be put for the soil; as, a rich country . ( Crabb : Eng . Synon.)