stranded
/'strændid/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
- Adjective:
- Left in a difficult or helpless situation without means to move or escape: Refers to being stuck in a place, often unexpectedly, with no easy way to leave or get help.
- Abandoned or isolated: Describes a person, animal, or object that has been left behind or cut off from others, often in a remote or inaccessible location.
Usage and Examples
General Usage:
- The stranded hikers waited for rescue on the mountain. (The hikers were stuck and unable to leave the mountain.)
- After the storm, many boats were stranded on the beach. (The boats were left stuck on the beach, unable to return to the water.)
- She felt stranded in the foreign city without her passport. (She felt helpless and unable to leave the city.)
Specific Contexts:
- Transportation: Often used for vehicles or travelers unable to continue a journey.
- Hundreds of passengers were stranded at the airport due to the canceled flights.
- Biology/Ecology: Can describe marine life left out of water.
- Volunteers helped return the stranded whale to the ocean.
Advanced Usage and Nuances
- Emotional or Psychological State: Can describe a feeling of being isolated or helpless in a non-physical situation.
- He felt professionally stranded after his company closed. (He felt his career was stuck with no good options.)
- "Stranded" vs. "Stuck": "Stranded" often implies a more serious, isolated, or abandoned situation, usually requiring external help, whereas "stuck" can be more general and temporary.
Variants and Related Words
- Strand (verb): The action of leaving someone or something in a stranded condition.
- The breakdown stranded us in the desert for hours.
- Stranding (noun): The event or instance of becoming stranded, commonly used for whales or dolphins on shore.
- The marine biologists investigated the cause of the dolphin stranding.
Synonyms
- Marooned: Left isolated, often on a remote island or shore.
- Abandoned: Deserted or left behind.
- Isolated: Cut off from others or from resources.
- High and dry: In a helpless position, especially after being abandoned. (Idiomatic)
Related Phrases and Idioms
- Leave someone stranded: To abandon someone in a difficult situation.
- The unreliable taxi service left us stranded downtown at midnight.
- Stranded asset: An economic term for an asset that has become obsolete or non-performing ahead of its useful life (e.g., due to climate change policies). This is a compound term listed here as a related concept.
- The company wrote off billions in stranded fossil fuel assets.
Adjective
- cut off or left behind
- an isolated pawn
- several stranded fish in a tide pool
- travelers marooned by the blizzard