crevasse
Americannoun
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a fissure, or deep cleft, in glacial ice, the earth's surface, etc.
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a breach in an embankment or levee.
verb (used with object)
noun
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a deep crack or fissure, esp in the ice of a glacier
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a break in a river embankment
verb
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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.
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A large, deep fissure in the Earth caused by an earthquake.
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A wide crack or breach in the bank of a river. Crevasses usually form during floods.
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◆ 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.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of crevasse
1805–15, < French; see crevice
Compare meaning
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Explanation
If you're heading to the North Pole by sled, watch out you don't fall into a crevasse — a deep fissure or crack in the snow or ice. Similar to the term "crevice," though "crevice" usually refers to a fissure in a rock face. Neither one is a nice place to get stuck. The word crevasse, as its spelling suggests, comes from an old French word, the verb crevare, meaning "to burst or break," and indicating how a crevasse was formed in the first place. The reason for the difference in the two terms, crevasse and crevice, was originally to indicate a difference in size: in general a crevasse is much larger than a crevice, which can often be extremely small.
Vocabulary lists containing crevasse
Geological Features
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Grendel
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The Golden Compass
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Example Sentences
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CREVASSE, a French word used in two senses.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 7, Slice 6 "Coucy-le-Château" to "Crocodile" by Various
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.
