Search the Dictionary

y which an inclosed place may be entered; a place of ingress; entrance. Doors and windows,inlets of men and of light. Sir H. Wotton.

A small chain. Sir W. Scott.

A little fin; one of the parts of a divided fin.

A small vein.

An inlet of water from the sea.

An inlet of the sea, usually smaller than a gulf, but of the same general character.

An inlet from the Gulf of Mexico, from a lake, or from a large river, sometimes sluggish, sometimes without perceptible movement except from tide and wind. [Southern U. S.] A dark slender thread of a bayou moves loiteringly northeastward into a swamp of huge cypresses. G. W. Cable.

A retired nook; especially, a small, sheltered inlet, creek, or bay; a recess in the shore. Vessels which were in readiness for him within secret coves and nooks. Holland.

A small inlet or bay, narrower and extending further into the land than a cove; a recess in the shore of the sea, or of a river. Each creek and cavern of the dangerous shore. Cowper. They discovered a certain creek, with a shore. Acts xxvii. 39.

A narrow inlet of the sea, penetrating between high banks or rocks, as on the coasts of Norway and Alaska. [Written also fjord.]

A flood; a creek or inlet; a bay or estuary; a river; -- obsolete, except as a place name, -- as Fleet Street in London. Together wove we nets to entrap the fish In floods and sedgy fleets. Matthewes.

A bay, recess, or inlet of the sea, or the mouth of a river, which affords anchorage and shelter for shipping; a harbor; a port. What shipping and what lading's in our haven. Shak. Their haven under the hill. Tennyson.

A small bay; an inlet; a haven. [Scot.] Jamieson.

An opening from the sea into the land; an inlet. [Obs.] Sir W. Raleigh.

ts or sori in many ferns, usually a very thin scale attached by the middle or side to a veinlet.

The act or the place of entrance; an inlet. Tennyson.

An appendage to an inlet or outlet opening of a pipe or vessel, to direct or facilitate the inflow or outflow of a fluid.

A short outlet, or inlet, pipe projecting from the end or side of a hollow vessel, as a steam-engine cylinder or a steam boiler.

A place where ships may ride secure from storms; a sheltered inlet, bay, or cove; a harbor; a haven. Used also figuratively.

Ignition in an internal-combustion engine while the inlet valve is open or before compression is completed.