calve

American  

[kav, kahv] / kæv, kɑv /

verb (used without object)

calved, calving

1. to give birth to a calf.

   The cow is expected to calve tomorrow.

2. (of a glacier, an iceberg, etc.) to break up or splinter so as to produce a detached piece.

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verb (used with object)

calved, calving

1. to give birth to (a calf ).

2. (of a glacier, an iceberg, etc.) to break off or detach (a piece).

   The glacier calved an iceberg.

calve British  

/ kɑːv /

verb

1. to give birth to (a calf)

2. (of a glacier or iceberg) to release (masses of ice) in breaking up

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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

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

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