sands

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of sand.

   The river deposited fine sands along its lower banks.

   Builders mix several sands to get the right concrete.

   Note

   Sand is normally a mass noun, so its plural has specific work to do. Usually it counts kinds or grades, as when builders blend several sands for concrete or a river leaves fine sands behind. It can also name a broad stretch of sand as a place, which is the desert-or-beach meaning. One sand, two sands is rare outside these uses.

2. 2
   nounfiguratively

   A broad expanse of sand, such as a desert or a sandy seashore.

   The caravan crossed the burning sands before nightfall.

   At low tide, the sands stretched far out toward the water.

   Similardesert, dunes, beach, shore

   Note

   Here the plural names a place rather than a quantity, and it nearly always takes the. It can be vast and foreign, as in being lost in the sands of Arabia, or it can be a holiday shore. The AA Book of British Villages (1980) says of Cruden Bay that "the sands are superb." The same phrase can therefore suggest a hostile desert or a stretch of seaside to enjoy.

3. 3
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of sand.

   The carpenter sands each board before staining it.

   A floor machine sands the boards faster than any hand tool.

   Note

   The -s here marks a present-tense verb with a he, she or it subject, not a plural. It looks exactly like the noun plural, and only the sentence tells them apart. Most uses mean smoothing a surface with sandpaper. The verb can also mean covering something with sand, and it once meant blotting wet ink with sand.

4. 4
   noun

   Grains of sand, especially those that fill and run through an hourglass.

   He turned the glass over and the sands began to fall again.

   Only a thin layer of sands remained in the upper bulb.

   Similargrains

5. 5
   nounfiguratively

   A unit or passage of time, figured as grains of sand running through an hourglass.

   The sands of his reign were nearly spent when the rebellion broke out.

   With each lost battle, the empire's sands ran lower.

   Similardays, time

   Note

   The hourglass becomes a clock of what remains. The grains still waiting in the upper bulb stand for the time that is left. The figure usually comes with an of-phrase naming whose time it is and a verb of running or falling, as in "the sands of a lifetime are rapidly running out." It grows directly out of the hourglass grains, so keep the image consistent and let the sands run, fall or run out.

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