Forms: 4 forlonde, (farlande), 5–7 forland(e, (7 furland), 6 forelonde, -lande, 5– foreland. [f. FORE- pref. + LAND. Cf. Du. voorland; also Icel. forlendi land between hills and the sea.]
1. A cape, headland or promontory.
13[?]. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 698.
| Alle þe iles of Anglesay on lyft half he haldeȝ, | |
| & fareȝ ouer þe fordeȝ by þe for-londeȝ. |
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 880. Sire, see ȝe ȝone farlande, with ȝone two fyrez.
a. 1490. Botoner, Itin. (Nasmith, 1778), 153. Unum forland vocat. le Holyhede.
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot., I. 374.
| The schippis draif on forland and on craigis, | |
| And maid thame all that tyme to ryve in ragis. |
1551. Recorde, Cast. Knowl. (1556), 83. At the great forelonde of Affrike, commonly called the cape of Good hope, are there diuers regions replenished with inhabitantes.
1671. Narborough, Jrnl., in Acc. Sev. Late Voy., I. (1711), 24. At the face of this Foreland lie six rocky Islands; one is a Musket-shot off the Main, the rest farther off.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 117. The first land which he [Frobisher in 1576] made on the coast was a Cape, which, in honour to the queen, he called Queen Elizabeth’s Foreland.
1877. L. Morris, Epic Hades (1878), 34–5.
| The rearing coursers plunged, and then again | |
| The strong young arm constrained them, and they flashed | |
| To where the wave-worn foreland ends the bay. |
2. A strip of land in front of something.
a. (See quots.)
1580–1. Act 23 Eliz., c. 13 § 2. Certeyne Shelves and Forelandes … lyeng betwene the Walles and Boundes of the said Marshes … and the River of Thames.
1795. J. Phillips, Hist. Inland Navigation, Addenda, 178. The forelands on the north side also are not to be less than thirty feet wide.
1807. Trans. Soc. Arts, XXVI. 35. By the erection of a new bank or sea wall, they get a foreland to their former estate secured by it, instead of an old rotten bank.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Foreland.… A space left between the base of a canal bank, and an adjacent drainage cut or river, so as to favour the stability of the bank.
b. Fortif. (See quot. 1853.)
1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., Foreland, a Term in Fortification, the same with Berme.
1717. trans. Frezier’s Voy. S. Sea, 93. All this Part is built with Brick, rais’d 25 Foot in height on a Berm, or Foreland, being a small space of Ground between the Wall and the Moat.
1853. Stocqueler, The Military Encyclopædia, Foreland … a confined space of ground between the rampart of a town or fortified place and the moat…. Now usually called a berm.
3. Land or territory lying in front.
1851. Kitto, Bible Illustr., Life & Death Our Lord, 29. I looked towards the west, and beheld the forelands of Carmel.
1870. Daily Tel., 22 Sept. Alsace and Lorraine … will form a German foreland.
† 4. Sc. ‘A house facing the street, as distinguished from one in a close or alley’ (Jam.). Obs.
1489. Acta Audit., 149/2. A foreland of ane tennenment liand in þe said Cannoungate.
5. attrib., in † Foreland-men (see quot.).
1666. Lond. Gaz., No. 19/4. The Foreland Men, viz. The Colliers of Sandwich, and the several Ports of Thanet, stay in expectation of Convoy.
