Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- An inlet of the Tasman Sea in southeast Australia south of Sydney. It was visited by Capt. James Cook in 1770 and named by Sir Joseph Banks, the botanist in his crew, for the exotic flora found on its shores. The first British penal colony in Australia was established here briefly in 1788 before relocating to present-day Sydney.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- A harbor on the east coast of Australia, and an English convict settlement there; -- so called from the number of new plants found on its shore at its discovery by Cook in 1770.
- (Med.) an astringent, reddish substance consisting of the inspissated juice of several Australian species of Eucalyptus.
- (Med.) a resin of reddish yellow color, resembling gamboge, the product of different Australian species of Xanthorrhæa, esp. the grass tree (
Xanthorrhæa hastilis ).
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- proper noun geography A
bay inNew South Wales , south of Sydney Cove,Australia ; the site of a landing byexplorer Captain James Cook and later of the First Fleet, and originally planned to be the site of the firstpenal colony in Australia. - proper noun The penal colony, actually established at Sydney Cove, which developed into the now
city ofSydney .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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I shall not recapitulate Cook's voyages; the first fitted out by the British Government was made in 1768, but Cook did not touch upon Australia's coast until two years later, when, voyaging northwards along the eastern coast, he anchored at a spot he called Botany Bay, from the brightness and abundance of the beautiful wild flowers he found growing there.
Australia Twice Traversed, Illustrated, Ernest Giles 1866
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Yet the name Botany Bay, does not seem beautiful to us; for it reminds us not of roses, but of rogues; not of violets, but of violent men; not of lilies, but of villains.
Far Off Favell Lee Mortimer 1840
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Somewhere in the world—I am not sure exactly where—is a place called Botany Bay.
Morgan’s Run Colleen McCullough 2000
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Somewhere in the world—I am not sure exactly where—is a place called Botany Bay.
Morgan’s Run Colleen McCullough 2000
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The next harbour to the northward is Botany Bay, which is a capacious bay, with excellent anchorage for shipping; but the entrance is very dangerous to those commanders who are strangers to the coast.
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Botany Bay, which is a place both of retirement and rustication for his invalided wives who have lost their freshness with age.
French and Oriental Love in a Harem Mario Uchard
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In describing Port Jackson, I omitted to notice the neighbouring harbour, called Botany Bay, originally discovered by Captain Cook, and subsequently abandoned for its rival.
Trade and Travel in the Far East or Recollections of twenty-one years passed in Java, Singapore, Australia and China. G. F. Davidson
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From this circumstance the place was called Botany Bay, and its two headlands received the names of Cape
History of Australia and New Zealand From 1606 to 1890 George Sutherland 1880
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He was the first to take out a gang of convicts in the ship _Scarborough_, and land them in the place which was afterwards called Botany Bay, then a wild and desolate country; this happened in the year 1788, when a new law was passed to establish a penal settlement in Australia with a governor at its head.
Susan A Story for Children Amy Walton 1873
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On another day our friends took a drive to Botany Bay, which is only five miles from Sydney.
The Land of the Kangaroo Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey through the Great Island Continent Thomas Wallace Knox 1865
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