crevasse
[kruh-vas]
- a fissure, or deep cleft, in glacial ice, the earth's surface, etc.
- a breach in an embankment or levee.
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- to fissure with crevasses.
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Origin of crevasse
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for crevasse
Contemporary Examples
Some days, she felt as though glaciers were buckling around her and a crevasse yawned beneath her.
With the crawling, for instance, Bradey had been on top of a snow bridge that crossed a crevasse.
At one point he fell down a crevasse and was left dangling in the abyss from a rope, up which he dragged his disintegrating body.
Historical Examples
There was a crevasse which was called the "Enfer du Plogoff."
My Double LifeSarah Bernhardt
Come to me on the edge of the crevasse nearest the place of most destruction!
The German wishes he had dropped the Frenchman into the crevasse.
Mountain MeditationsL. Lind-af-Hageby
The crevasse through which it issues is wild and romantic in the extreme.
Byeways in PalestineJames Finn
It was a stony smile, humorless as a crevasse in a rock-face.
Highways in HidingGeorge Oliver Smith
crevasse
- a deep crack or fissure, esp in the ice of a glacier
- US a break in a river embankment
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- (tr) US to make a break or fissure in (a dyke, wall, etc)
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Word Origin
C19: from French: crevice
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for crevasse
n.
1823, of glaciers; 1814, of riverbanks (in that case from Louisiana French), from French crevasse, from Old French crevace "crevice" (see crevice). Essentially the same word as crevice, but re-adopted in senses for which the meaning that had taken hold in crevice was felt to be too small.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
crevasse
[krĭ-văs′]
- A deep fissure in a glacier or other body of ice. Crevasses are usually caused by differential movement of parts of the ice over an uneven topography.
- A large, deep fissure in the Earth caused by an earthquake.
- A wide crack or breach in the bank of a river. Crevasses usually form during floods.♦ The sediments that spill out through the crevasse and fan out along the external margin of the river's bank form a crevasse splay deposit.
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
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