crevasse

American  

[kruh-vas] / krəˈvæs /

noun

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

2. a breach in an embankment or levee.

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verb (used with object)

crevassed, crevassing

1. to fissure with crevasses.

crevasse British  

/ krɪˈvæs /

noun

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

2. a break in a river embankment

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verb

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

crevasse Scientific  

/ krĭ-văs′ /

1. 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.

2. A large, deep fissure in the Earth caused by an earthquake.

3. A wide crack or breach in the bank of a river. Crevasses usually form during floods.

4. ◆ 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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Other Word Forms

• uncrevassed
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of crevasse

1805–15, < French; see crevice

Compare meaning

How does crevasse compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• crevasse vs. crevice

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.

Example Sentences

Sauvé’s Crevasse was a breach that opened on the east bank of the Mississippi in May, 1849.

From The New Yorker • Mar. 25, 2019

Mr. Gladstone and Professor Tyndall discovered seated on the edge of a Crevasse.

From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 98, March 22, 1890 by Various

So I take my flocks across the ford, since Filon is in the water, and take all those silly ones toward La Crevasse, and after I think about that business.

From The Spinner's Book of Fiction by Various

Crevasse in Blackfeet Glacier 143 They went back carefully in their own tracks, and rejoined the congressmen, who, it seemed, had climbed where they could watch, and had seen the whole thing from a distance.

From Boy Scouts in Glacier Park The Adventures of Two Young Easterners in the Heart of the High Rockies by Eaton, Walter Prichard

Related Words

• abyss
• chasm
• fissure