Word.ws English Dictionary

gulfe

gulfe is the obsolete spelling of gulf.

Meaning of gulf

Noun

gulf (plural gulfs)

  1. A hollow place in the earth; an abyss; a deep chasm or basin.
    • He then surveyed / Hell and the gulf between.1667, John Milton, “Book III”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
  2. (obsolete) That which swallows; the gullet.
    • Witch's mummy, maw and gulf / Of the ravined salt sea shark,c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
  3. That which swallows irretrievably; a whirlpool; a sucking eddy.
    • [T]here is no such mine, / None; but a gulf of ruin, swallowing gold, not making.1864, Alfred Tennyson, “Sea Dreams”, in Enoch Arden, &c., London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, page 100
  4. A portion of an ocean or sea extending into the land; a partially landlocked sea
    • the Gulf of Mexico
  5. A large deposit of ore in a lode.
  6. (figuratively) A wide interval or gap; a separating space.
    • Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Luke 16:26

See all 13 meanings of gulf

Forms of gulfe

pluralgulfes

Questions about gulfe

What is gulfe the obsolete spelling of?
Gulfe is the obsolete spelling of gulf.

Words near gulfe in the dictionary

  1. Gulf States
  2. Gulf Stream
  3. Gulf War
  4. Gulf War illness
  5. Gulf War syndrome
  6. gulfe
  7. gulfed
  8. gulfes
  9. Gulfian
  10. gulfing
  11. Gulfisation

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gulfe (page history and authors); gulf (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “gulfe.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gulfe. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.