avulse
Americanverb (used with object)
Etymology
Origin of avulse
1755–65; < Latin āvulsus, past participle of āvellere to pluck off, tear away, equivalent to ā- a- 4 + vul-, past participle stem of vellere to forcibly pull, pluck + -sus, variant of -tus past participle suffix
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“Rivers are perturbed all the time but only avulse if they are set up by enough deposition,” he says.
From Science Magazine ● May 13, 2021
Geographers had already noticed that rivers tend to avulse at the foot of mountains, where slopes change dramatically and sediment settles out, silting up the bed.
From Science Magazine ● May 13, 2021
“We realized this spectacular archive recorded a major event that reorganized the delta’s water pathways,” Chamberlain says, adding that the delta’s river channel probably hasn’t avulsed since then.
From Science Magazine ● Jun. 17, 2024
The real world agrees: The Mississippi has avulsed in central Louisiana about once every 1400 years, creating large delta lobes across the Gulf Coast.
From Science Magazine ● May 13, 2021
In the last seven thousand years, the river has avulsed six times, and each time it has set about laying down a new bulge of land.
From The New Yorker ● Mar. 25, 2019
The X-ray showed that a bit of bone had avulsed from his pelvis.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 13, 2017
The tibio-fibular interosseous ligament may rupture, or the outer portion of the tibia, to which it is attached, may be avulsed.
From Manual of Surgery Volume Second: Extremities—Head—Neck. Sixth Edition. by Miles, Alexander
So if an avulsing river encounters an old channel, he says, it is likely to colonize it.
From Science Magazine ● May 13, 2021
For example, the vast Pantanal, in the heart of South America, is kept rich and muddy by the avulsing Taquari River.
From Science Magazine ● May 13, 2021
An alternative procedure consists in avulsing segments of the vein by means of Babcock's stylet, which consists of a flexible steel rod, 30 inches in length, with acorn-shaped terminals.
From Manual of Surgery Volume First: General Surgery. Sixth Edition. by Thomson, Alexis
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
