calve
Americanverb (used without object)
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calves,
present (3rd person singular)
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calved,
past participle, past
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calving
present participle
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to give birth to a calf.
The cow is expected to calve tomorrow.
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(of a glacier, an iceberg, etc.) to break up or splinter so as to produce a detached piece.
verb (used with object)
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calves,
present (3rd person singular)
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calved,
past participle, past
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calving
present participle
-
to give birth to (a calf ).
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(of a glacier, an iceberg, etc.) to break off or detach (a piece).
The glacier calved an iceberg.
verb
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to give birth to (a calf)
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(of a glacier or iceberg) to release (masses of ice) in breaking up
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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calvesimple
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calvessimple
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have calvedperfect
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has calvedperfect
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am calvingprogressive
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are calvingprogressive
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is calvingprogressive
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have been calvingperfect progressive
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has been calvingperfect progressive
Past
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calvedsimple
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had calvedperfect
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was calvingprogressive
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were calvingprogressive
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had been calvingperfect progressive
Future
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.
See Examples For:
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
Alaska is a bucket-list destination for visitors drawn by wild landscapes such as mountains and craggy glaciers that spectacularly calve into lakes or the ocean.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 8, 2023
Over 35,000 cubic metres of ice calve from the glacier each year, and more icebergs spew into Disko Bay than anywhere else in the northern hemisphere.
From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2022
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
Once farmers and ranchers arrived in California, their stock of calves and pigs and crops were a bear buffet, and that got bears killed much more often than any unprovoked attacks on humans.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
The rancher is selling calves for record sums, but is not better off because he has higher costs.
From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026
“It couldn’t come at a worse time, as a lot of producers will be selling their calves over the next few months.”
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 28, 2026
"Orcas often tear apart prey and share it with other members of the group, including calves and juveniles," said Ayres.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 23, 2026
Once Alyce and Will took the calves upon their shoulders and scrambled from the pit, so too did Tansy, not willing to stay alone in that hard, dark, and calfless place.
From "The Midwife's Apprentice" by Karen Cushman
The size and makeup of the particles also revealed that the main source of iron was not dust, but icebergs calved from West Antarctica.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 4, 2026
The icebergs are comparable in size to some of the smaller icebergs found off present-day Antarctica, such as blocks that calved from the Larsen B ice shelf in 2002.
From BBC ● Apr. 24, 2025
The study — and eventual closure of Explorers — came after a huge chunk of ice fell off, or calved, the main glacier on Oct.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 7, 2023
I grew up reading Scott's journals, I traced routes from Palmer Station to Queen Maude Land on a map, and I stared for hours at photographs of calved glaciers in the Minnesota Science Museum.
From Salon ● May 29, 2023
When they were about fifty yards from the base, a thunderclap rattled Hazels bones, and a curtain of ice that would have covered Camp Jupiter calved away and fell toward them.
From "The Son of Neptune" by Rick Riordan
The leading causes of cattle death are respiratory illness, digestive problems, calving complications and weather—not wolves.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 15, 2026
As the ice thinned, this smooth foundation allowed large sections to lift off the ground and float, triggering an unusual and sudden calving event.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 26, 2026
The Mexican cowboys became adept at everything from calving to branding to overseeing the kind of long-distance cattle drives that later became a staple of the western.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 23, 2026
Don’t forget Canada’s zombie wildfires, the Texas floods, the late autumn Southwest heat waves, the calving Doomsday glacier and on and on.
From Salon ● Dec. 31, 2025
When glaciers break up due to rising world temperatures, it’s called calving.
From "I'll Give You the Sun" by Jandy Nelson
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.
