Sargasso

See also: sargasso

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /sɑːˈɡæsəʊ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /sɑɹˈɡæsoʊ/
• Rhymes: -æsəʊ
• Hyphenation: Sar‧gas‧so

Proper noun

Sargasso

1. Short for Sargasso Sea.
   • 2000, Ruth Heller, A Sea Within a Sea: Secrets of the Sargasso, →ISBN:
   • 2010, James Prosek, Eels: An Exploration, from New Zealand to the Sargasso, of the World's Most Mysterious Fish, →ISBN:

Noun

Sargasso (plural Sargassos)

1. (figuratively) Also sargasso: a confused, tangled mass or situation.
   • 1977, Ben Belitt, “From the Firehouse: (Homage to Paul Feeley)”, in The Double Witness: Poems: 1970–1976, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, →ISBN; reprinted as The Double Witness (Princeton Legacy Library), Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2016, →ISBN, page 22:

     I cannot bear the striking of your colors, that Sargasso of / passionate forms.

   • 2005, Aaron Barlow, “Reel Toads and Imaginary Cities: Philip K. Dick, Blade Runner and the Contemporary Science Fiction Movie”, in Will Brooker, editor, The Blade Runner Experience: The Legacy of a Science Fiction Classic, New York, N.Y.: Wallflower Press, published by Columbia University Press, →ISBN, section 1 (The Cinema of Philip K. Dick), page 58:

     His [Philip K. Dick's] ideas provide diegetic anchors for digitally oriented directors [...] whose works might otherwise float off into a Sargasso of insignificance.

   • 2005, William Logan, “Verse Chronicle: Satanic Mills”, in The Undiscovered Country: Poetry in the Age of Tin, New York, N.Y., Chichester, West Sussex: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page 329:

     His [William Shakespeare's] poems, like [John] Donne's and [John] Keats's and [Emily] Dickinson's, have not drowned in the Sargasso of discarded poetic diction.

   • 2007, Michael Jackson, “On Birth, Death, and Rebirth”, in Excursions, Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, →ISBN, page 192:

     All night on the plane, I had slept fitfully, my mind clogged with a Sargasso of floating memories and disconnected images—from when I lived in New Zealand or first went to Sierra Leone.

   • 2008 February, Dallas Tanner, chapter 32, in Wake of the Lake Monster (The Cryptids Trilogy; book 3), [s.l.]: Trilogus Books, →ISBN, pages 306–307:

     They were all shocked when the crews saw the lights and glinting steel of a ghost ship. It was as if he entered a Sargasso of lost and forgotten vessels, shadows out of his shattered past.