groyne
noun
- rigid hydraulic structure built from an ocean shore (in coastal engineering) or from a bank (in rivers) that interrupts water flow and limits the movement of sediment
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ɡɹɔɪn/
noun
Etymology: From Middle English groyn (“snout”), from Old French groign, from Late Latin grunium, grunia, from Latin grunnire (“grunt like a pig”).
- An often wooden structure that projects from a coastline to prevent erosion, longshore drift etc.; a breakwater.
“Old rail and timber groynes will be erected along the beach to trap shingle moved by coastwise drift, and to rebuild the protection to the toe of the embankment.”
“Our assimilation into one another had been beautifully timed, with each little revelation of unpleasantness acting as a modest baffler, a groyne to our mutual inundation. Now all of this was going to be flooded, drenched in poisonous ichor.”