crevasse

[kruh-vas]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR crevasse ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a fissure, or deep cleft, in glacial ice, the earth's surface, etc.

a breach in an embankment or levee.

verb (used with object), cre·vassed, cre·vas·sing.

to fissure with crevasses.

RELATED WORDS

abyss, fissure, chasm, cleft, hole, gap

Nearby words

Origin of crevasse

1805–15, Americanism; < French; see crevice

Related formsun·cre·vassed, adjective

Can be confusedcrevice crevasse

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for crevasse

Some days, she felt as though glaciers were buckling around her and a crevasse yawned beneath her.
Breaking Mount Everest’s Glass Ceiling|Amanda Padoan, Peter Zuckerman|March 30, 2014|DAILY BEAST
With the crawling, for instance, Bradey had been on top of a snow bridge that crossed a crevasse.
Breaking Mount Everest’s Glass Ceiling|Amanda Padoan, Peter Zuckerman|March 30, 2014|DAILY BEAST
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.
Six Greatest Acts of Human Endurance|Nico Hines|November 6, 2013|DAILY BEAST
She stopped a little while at the crevasse, I am told, but finding she could do no good, she went on.
Up the River|Oliver Optic

A crevasse was made in the levee above New Orleans flooding much of the city.
The Every Day Book of History and Chronology|Joel Munsell
We all knew what had happened -- one of the runners was in a crevasse.
The South Pole, Volumes 1 and 2|Roald Amundsen
A glance convinced one and all of them that the crevasse was impassable.
The Plant Hunters|Mayne Reid
Eckenrod became sober as he studied the sharp walls of the crevasse.
The Cry at Midnight|Mildred A. Wirt

British Dictionary definitions for crevasse

crevasse

noun

a deep crack or fissure, esp in the ice of a glacier

US a break in a river embankment

verb

(tr) US to make a break or fissure in (a dyke, wall, etc)

Word Origin for crevasse

C19: from French: crevice

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for crevasse

crevasse

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.

Science definitions for crevasse

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.