calve
Americanverb (used without object)
-
to give birth to a calf.
The cow is expected to calve tomorrow.
-
(of a glacier, an iceberg, etc.) to break up or splinter so as to produce a detached piece.
verb (used with object)
-
to give birth to (a calf ).
-
(of a glacier, an iceberg, etc.) to break off or detach (a piece).
The glacier calved an iceberg.
verb
-
to give birth to (a calf)
-
(of a glacier or iceberg) to release (masses of ice) in breaking up
Etymology
Origin of calve
before 1000; Middle English calven, Old English (Anglian) *calfian, derivative of calf calf 1; cognate with Old English ( West Saxon ) cealfian
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.
The whales feast all summer long, and only then embark on a 6,000-mile journey south to Mexico, where females calve and nurse their young in the warm and protected inlets along the Baja Peninsula.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 14, 2024
"This rifting process is essentially how Antarctic ice shelves calve large icebergs."
From Science Daily • Feb. 28, 2024
These icebergs, some of them skyscraper-size, calve regularly from the glacier front, crash into a deep fiord and float west into Disko Bay.
From New York Times • Jan. 6, 2024
Either a catastrophic amount of ice could calve off the main body of ice, or hundreds of small lagoons will cause the front of the glacier to “disintegrate.”
From Seattle Times • Nov. 7, 2023
There were three calves born when they corralled them, and two of the cows looked as if they would calve within a few days.
From "Ceremony:" by Leslie Marmon Silko
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.
