boulder
1 Americannoun
noun
noun
-
a smooth rounded mass of rock that has a diameter greater than 25cm and that has been shaped by erosion and transported by ice or water from its original position
-
geology a rock fragment with a diameter greater than 256 mm and thus bigger than a cobble
Other Word Forms
- bouldered adjective
- bouldery adjective
Etymology
Origin of boulder
1610–20; short for boulder stone; Middle English bulderston < Scandinavian; compare dialectal Swedish bullersten big stone (in a stream), equivalent to buller rumbling noise (< Old Swedish bulder ) + sten stone
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.
Somehow, creaky tiled houses have been wedged here between enormous outcroppings of glacial boulders.
That strip of land is where unhoused people congregated until Evans said she and others complained and the city put up fencing and placed boulders to keep them out.
From Los Angeles Times
As Ryland works to translate Rocky’s language and build a system for the two to communicate, the bond formed between human and pentapedal boulder is palpable.
From Salon
Bright pink granite boulders scattered across the dark volcanic peaks of the Hudson Mountains in West Antarctica have led scientists to a remarkable discovery.
From Science Daily
There, below a big red boulder shaped like a sleeping auroch, lay two drowned wolves like sodden fur cloaks.
From Literature
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.
