Also 8 fuir, 9 fyord. [a. Norw. fiord:—ON. fjǫrðr:—prehistoric *ferpu-z.] A long, narrow arm of the sea, running up between high banks or cliffs, as on the coast of Norway.
1674. trans. Scheffer’s Lapland, 147. Till it comes to Titusfiord, which is a bay of the frozen sea.
1742. Middleton, in Phil. Trans., XLII. 167. These Shores have many Inlets or Fuirs, the Cavities of which are filled up with Ice and Snow, by the almost perpetual Winters there.
1818. E. Henderson, Iceland, I. p. vi. The Faxe Fiord abounds with lava; and the fishermen frequently find beds of it alternating with sand-banks, at the depth of forty fathoms.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xlviii. (1856), 447. Those great indentations known as the Fiords, which penetrate the metamorphic ridges at right angles to their long axes, serve as conduits to the interior ice.
1865. Lubbock, Preh. Times, 81. In the sheltered and shallow fjords of Denmark, the sea is generally calm, and, in many instances, a layer of sand has accumulated over and thus protected the flint fragments.
b. attrib., as fiord-mouth; fiord-like adj.
1885. Pall Mall G., 7 May, 4/2. Coal Harbour is situated on the same fiordlike Burrard Inlet. Ibid. (1887), 23 Aug., 6/1. Islands … lying in the fjord-mouths.
