seven seas
5
3.4
- noun
:
siete mares
- There's not a pirate on the seven seas can match you.
- sail the seven seas
- ever sail the seven seas
We sailed the seven seas in ships of steel laden with our manufacturers, and now we can't make rubber gloves.
- We sailed the seven seas in ships of steel laden with our manufacturers, and now we can't make rubber gloves.
Examples
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The World is the only residential community at sea, allowing guests to voyage the seven seas in style and comfort.
Blog text (4) -
We sailed the seven seas in ships of steel laden with our manufacturers, and now we can't make rubber gloves.
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Like, have you ever wanted to sail the seven seas like Captain Black Bear?
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I traveled seven seas... to hear this, you know?
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Sail the seven seas and track down wild game.
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Let other men sail the seven seas and live to come home rich, or poor as the case may be.
Fiction book (1990) -
Sailing the seven seas and conquering the world.
Fiction book (1993) -
The meanest, black-hearted pirate that ever sailed the seven seas.
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We'd be out searching for that treasure, sailing the seven seas on a five-year mission, boldly going where no man has gone before.
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We sailed the seven seas in search of adventure.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase combines transparent constituents ('seven' = 7, 'seas' = large bodies of saltwater), so a learner will grasp it refers to multiple seas; however the conventional sense meaning 'the world's seas' or 'all parts of the world reachable by sea' relies on cultural/historical usage rather than pure composition. Because the numeral functions idiomatically (seven as a figurative totality) the expression is only partially predictable from its parts.
Etymology
The phrase seven seas may come from old sailors who listed seven important seas, or from using the number seven to mean 'many' or 'all'. The picture of someone sailing every sea is why it now means 'all the oceans' or 'every part of the world that can be reached by sea'.