• enPR gŭlf, IPA: /ɡʌlf/

gulf (plural gulfs)

1. A hollow place in the earth; an abyss; a deep chasm or basin.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book 3”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708 ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554 ↗:

     He then surveyed / Hell and the gulf between.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981 ↗, Luke 16:26 ↗:

     Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed.

2. (obsolete) That which swallows; the gullet.
   • 1606, William Shakespeare, Macbeth, IV. i. 23:

     Witch's mummy, maw and gulf / Of the ravined salt sea shark,

3. That which swallows irretrievably; a whirlpool; a sucking eddy.
   • 1864, Alfred Tennyson, “Sea Dreams”, in Enoch Arden, &c., London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], OCLC 879237670 ↗, page 100 ↗:

     [T]here is no such mine, / None; but a gulf of ruin, swallowing gold, not making.

4. (geography) A portion of an ocean or sea extending into the land; a partially landlocked sea

   the Gulf of Mexico    the Persian Gulf

5. (mining) A large deposit of ore in a lode.
6. (figurative) A difference, especially a large difference, between groups.
7. (Oxbridge slang) The bottom part of a list of those awarded a degree, for those who have only just passed.

• (difference) abyss

• French: golfe
• German: Golf, Meerbusen
• Italian: golfo
• Portuguese: golfo
• Russian: зали́в
• Spanish: golfo

gulf (gulfs, present participle gulfing; past and past participle gulfed)

1. (Oxbridge slang, transitive) To award a degree to somebody who has only just passed sufficiently.

1. The Persian Gulf, or the region surrounding it.

   Gulf carrier

   Gulf War

   opportunity to work in the Gulf