calve
Americanverb (used without object)
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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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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.
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
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
Local tour operators hope that people will come to Churchill in the spring to see birds and in the summer to see belugas calve in the mouth of the river.
From New York Times • Nov. 4, 2021
As the icebergs calve from the glaciers on the continent, they bring with them mineral deposits scraped up from the ground, and release these nutrients into the water.
From "Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World" by Jennifer Armstrong
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.
