strand¹ / strand/ • v. [tr.] drive or leave (a boat, sailor, or sea creature) aground on a shore: the ships were stranded in shallow water| [as adj.] (stranded) a stranded whale. ∎  leave (someone) without the means to move from somewhere: they were stranded in St. Louis by the blizzard.• n. poetic/lit. the shore of a sea, lake, or large river: a heron glided to rest on a pebbly strand.strand² • n. a single thin length of something such as thread, fiber, or wire, esp. as twisted together with others: a strand of cotton strands of grass. ∎  a string of beads or pearls. ∎  an element that forms part of a complex whole: Marxist theories evolved from different strands of social analysis.

strand1 (arch., dial.) land bordering the sea or other water. OE. strand = MLG. strant, -nd-, ON. strǫnd; of unkn. orig.
Hence strand vb. force on to a shore. XVII.

strand2 one of the strings twisted together forming a rope or cord. XV (strond). of unkn. orig.