Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A position on an enemy shoreline captured by troops in advance of an invading force.
  • noun A first achievement that opens the way for further developments; a foothold.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun an area in hostile territory that has been occupied and is held to allow aditional troops and supplies to enter.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun military An area of hostile territory (especially on a beach) that, when captured, serves for the continuous landing (or movement into position) of further troops and material
  • noun by extension an initial success that ensures the possibility of further advances in a project; a foothold

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a bridgehead on the enemy's shoreline seized by an amphibious operation
  • noun an initial accomplishment that opens the way for further developments

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

beach + head

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Examples

  • The secretary general noted that he is anxious to resume that role and has established what he called a beachhead with his acting special representative, who will be based in Cyprus and available to work in Baghdad.

    CNN Transcript Jan 19, 2004 2004

  • The Newsweek story, however misleading, is serving as a kind of beachhead for similarly misguided pronouncements by people who cannot bear to admit how wrong they were to buy into the lies that delivered the United States -- and the Iraqi people -- into the morass of the past seven years.

    Eric Alterman: Think Again: Mission Accomplished? Really? 2010

  • He has also been criticized for not mentioning that Roman Catholics were persecuted by nativists in the early 1800s who said the immigrants would establish a papal "beachhead" in America.

    Archbishop Seeks Muslim Dialogue 2010

  • The Newsweek story, however misleading, is serving as a kind of beachhead for similarly misguided pronouncements by people who cannot bear to admit how wrong they were to buy into the lies that delivered the United States -- and the Iraqi people -- into the morass of the past seven years.

    Think Again: Mission Accomplished? Really? 2010

  • ERIC TREISMAN: an Oscar Schindler for Tibetans, Dies in Santa Fe at 64 yahooBuzzArticleHeadline = 'ERIC TREISMAN: an Oscar Schindler for Tibetans, Dies in Santa Fe at 64'; yahooBuzzArticleSummary = 'Article: Reminiscence on the passing of a fine Stanford Lawyer, Tibetan supporter, linguist, and friend of the internationally downtrodden, especially the Tibetans, whose "beachhead" in New Mexico he was instrumental in establishing.'

    ERIC TREISMAN: an Oscar Schindler for Tibetans, Dies in Santa Fe at 64 2009

  • It's a puppet, a proxy, a soulless lifeless 'beachhead' 'toehold' 'nose under the tent' 'straw stuck in someone else's drink (of oil)' invention, with the soulful living Jewish religio-cultural history grafted or painted on to give the appearance of 'a country 'and' the locals. '

    Israel Stands Up to Hamas While Cynthia McKinney Almost Starts WWIII 2009

  • It's a puppet, a proxy, a soulless lifeless 'beachhead' 'toehold' 'nose under the tent' 'straw stuck in someone else's drink (of oil)' invention, with the soulful living Jewish religio-cultural history grafted or painted on to give the appearance of 'a country 'and' the locals. '

    Israel Stands Up to Hamas While Cynthia McKinney Almost Starts WWIII 2009

  • It's a puppet, a proxy, a soulless lifeless 'beachhead' 'toehold' 'nose under the tent' 'straw stuck in someone else's drink (of oil)' invention, with the soulful living Jewish religio-cultural history grafted or painted on to give the appearance of 'a country 'and' the locals. '

    Israel Stands Up to Hamas While Cynthia McKinney Almost Starts WWIII 2009

  • Singapore's army has established a kind of beachhead there.

    CNN Transcript Jan 7, 2005 2005

  • When Suslov left the scene, the way was clearly opened for a renewed military presence, a "beachhead," to use a combat term.

    Brezhnev and After Weeks, Albert L. 1982

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