a broad and capacious bay comprehended between two promontories, and sometimes taking the name of a sea when it is very extensive; but particularly when it only communicates with the sea by means of a strait. Such are the Euxine or Black Sea, otherwise called the Gulf of Constantinople; the Adriatic Sea, called also the Gulf of Venice; the gulph of Sidra near Barbary; and the gulph of Lions near France. All these gulfs are in the Mediterranean. There are, besides the gulph of Mexico, the gulph of St Lawrence, and the gulph of California, which are in North America. There are also the gulph of Persia, otherwise called the Red Sea, between Persia and Arabia; the gulph of Bengal in India; and the gulphs of Cochinchina and Kamtschatka, near the countries of the same name.

The word comes from the French golfe, and that from the Italian golfo, which signify the same. Some deduce these further from the Greek γοβός; which Guishart again derives from the Hebrew גבוב. Du Cange derives them from the barbarous Latin gulfiun, or gulfius, which signify the same thing.