Also 7–9 lagune, and 7–9 in It. form laguna, pl. lagune. [ad. F. lagune, ad. It. and Sp. laguna:—L. lacūna pool.]
1. An area of salt or brackish water separated from the sea by low sand-banks, esp. one of those in the neighborhood of Venice.
1612. in Crt. & Times Jas. I. (1848), I. 184. He was observed that day to row to and fro in the laguna towards Murano, to see what show his house made.
1673. Ray, Journ. Low C., 8. The Lagune or Flats about Venice.
1697. Dampier, Voyages, I. 241. They went into a Lagune, or Lake of Salt-water [on the Mexican coast]. The mouth of this Lagune is not Pistol-shot wide.
1716. Lond. Gaz., No. 5407/2. People … have come over the Lagune on the Ice.
1763. W. Roberts, Nat. Hist. Florida, 8. This river … forms a lagune at the mouth.
1789. Mrs. Piozzi, Journ. France, I. 187. Covering the lagoons with gaiety and splendour.
1803. W. Taylor, in Ann. Rev., I. 32. The ornithorhynchus,… an animal peculiar to the lagoons in New South Wales.
1818. Shelley, Lett., Pr. Wks. 1888, II. 237. He took me in his gondola across the laguna to a long sandy island.
1856. Mrs. Browning, Aur. Leigh, VII. 715. God alone above each, as the sun O’er level lagunes.
1874. Lyell, Elem. Geol., i. 4. ‘Lagoons’ nearly separated by sand bars from the ocean.
1883. F. M. Peard, Contrad., I. 1. Behind them and beyond the lagoons lay the tossing and flying waves of the Adriatic.
2. The lake-like stretch of water enclosed in an atoll.
1769. Cook, Jrnl., 4 April (1893), 55. Found it to be an Island … of an Oval form, with a Lagoon in the Middle, for which I named it Lagoon Island.
1842. Prichard, Nat. Hist. Man, 326. Reels of coral rock, generally disposed in a circular form, and enclosing a lagoon.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., xv. (ed. 2), 254. Inside the rim of land, there is a shallow lake, or lagoon, of clear green water.
3. attrib. and Comb., as lagoon-channel; lagoon-island, an atoll; lagoon-whaling, the occupation of hunting the grey-whale in the Californian lagoons (Cent. Dict.).
1845. Darwin, Voy. Nat., xx. (1852), 452. This is one of the lagoon-islands (or atolls) of coral formation. Ibid., 469. The depth within the Lagoon-channel … varies much.
Hence Lagoonish a., characterized by the presence of lagoons; Lagoonless a., having no lagoon.
1841. Tait’s Mag., VIII. 348. The numerous creeks, islands, and inlets in this lagoonish … coast are minutely described.
1877. Le Conte, Elem. Geol., ii. (1879), 142. Sometimes the lagoon closes up, and a lagoonless island is the result.
