beachhead

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a defended position on an enemy shore, seized by landing troops and held so that an invasion can push inland

   The landing force held the beachhead for three days before breaking out.

2. 2
   noun

   a first secure position from which further advance is made, especially an initial foothold in a new market

   The company treated hospitals as a beachhead before selling to the wider public.

A twentieth-century compound of beach + head, modelled on the older bridgehead, a position held at the far end of a bridge. It was coined for amphibious warfare and fixed in English by the Normandy and Pacific landings of the Second World War, then carried into business strategy, where a beachhead market is the narrow first position a company secures before expanding.

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