strand

strand ¹

1. To drive or run ashore or aground.
2. To bring into or leave in a difficult or helpless position: The convoy was stranded in the desert.
3. Baseball To leave (a base runner) on base at the end of an inning.
4. Linguistics To separate (a grammatical element) from other elements in a construction, either by moving it out of the construction or moving the rest of the construction. In the sentence What are you aiming at, the preposition at has been stranded.

1. To be driven or run ashore or aground.
2. To be brought into or left in a difficult or helpless position.

Origin: Middle English, from Old English.

strand ²

1. A complex of fibers or filaments that have been twisted together to form a cable, rope, thread, or yarn.
2. a. A single filament, such as a fiber or thread, of a woven or braided material.
   b. A wisp or tress of hair.
3. Something that is plaited or twisted as a ropelike length: a strand of pearls; a strand of DNA.
4. One of the elements woven together to make an intricate whole, such as the plot of a novel.

1. To make or form (a rope, for example) by twisting strands together.
2. To break a strand of (a rope, for example).

Origin: Middle English strond.

Strand