Drake Passage

American  

noun

1. a strait between southern South America and the South Shetland Islands, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

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Drake Passage British  

noun

1. a strait between S South America and the South Shetland Islands, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans

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Etymology

Origin of Drake Passage

First recorded in 1830–40 as Drake's Passage; named after Sir Francis Drake

Example Sentences

The team, which also consists of wildlife monitor Maggie Coll, base leader Lou Hoskin, museum manager Aoife McKenna and shop manager Dale Ellis, will soon leave the UK and travel to Argentina, where they will spend a few days before taking a boat through the rough waters of the Drake passage.

From BBC

I’m not a seafarer; this is alarming, but apparently not unusual on the Drake Passage - the stretch of the notoriously rough Southern Ocean we are on.

From BBC

Working in this way also means researchers operate on the tourist ship’s schedule, with just four full days travelling around the Peninsula before heading back across the infamous Drake Passage.

From BBC

She is a member of a research team aboard the RRS Sir David Attenborough, which at the time of writing was sailing southeast through the Drake Passage to the Weddell Sea.

From National Geographic

Climate models suggest that when the Drake Passage opened tens of millions of years ago—no-one is quite sure exactly when—it contributed massively to the cooling of Antarctica.

From National Geographic