East is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. East is one of the four cardinal directions or compass points. It is the opposite of west and is perpendicular to north and south.
By convention, the right hand side of a map is east.
To go east using a compass for navigation, set a bearing or azimuth of 90°.
East is the direction toward which the Earth rotates about its axis, and therefore the general direction from which the Sun appears to rise.
During the Cold War, "The East" was sometimes used to refer to the Warsaw Pact and Communist China, along with other Communist nations.
Throughout history, the East has also been used by Europeans in reference to the Orient and Asian societies.
Read more about East: Etymology
Famous quotes containing the word east:
“Senta: These boats, sir, what are they for?
Hamar: They are solar boats for Pharaoh to use after his death. They’re the means by which Pharaoh will journey across the skies with the sun, with the god Horus. Each day they will sail from east to west, and each night Pharaoh will return to the east by the river which runs underneath the earth.”
—William Faulkner (1897–1962)
“A puff of wind, a puff faint and tepid and laden with strange odours of blossoms, of aromatic wood, comes out the still night—the first sigh of the East on my face. That I can never forget. It was impalpable and enslaving, like a charm, like a whispered promise of mysterious delight.... The mysterious East faced me, perfumed like a flower, silent like death, dark like a grave.”
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924)
“The East is the hearthside of America. Like any home, therefore, it has the defects of its virtues. Because it is a long-lived-in house, it bursts its seams, is inconvenient, needs constant refurbishing. And some of the family resources have been spent. To attain the privacy that grown-up people find so desirable, Easterners live a harder life than people elsewhere. Today it is we and not the frontiersman who must be rugged to survive.”
—Phyllis McGinley (1905–1978)