geyser
[gahy-zer, -ser for 1, 3; gee-zer for 2]
- a hot spring that intermittently sends up fountainlike jets of water and steam into the air.
- British Informal. a hot-water heater, as for a bath.
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- to spew forth as or like a geyser: the kettle geysering all over the stove.
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Origin of geyser
1755–65; < Icelandic Geysir name of a hot spring in Iceland, literally, gusher, derivative of geysa to gush
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for geyser
Contemporary Examples
This prompts Sarah Lynn to stab herself with a Confederate bayonet letter-opener, causing a geyser of blood.
'BoJack Horseman': The Debauched Tales of a Drunken, Groupie-Sexing D-List Horse, Hits NetflixMarlow Stern
August 22, 2014
Historical Examples
The thought set the geyser of his rage roaring and spouting in the face of heaven.
Weighed and WantingGeorge MacDonald
Hell's Half-Acre was a prelude to ten or twelve miles of geyser formation.
American NotesRudyard Kipling
Should be one another, and not one of them is properly a geyser.
The VerbalistThomas Embly Osmun, (AKA Alfred Ayres)
One day the ash will get into the burners and then the geyser will explode.
Toward the geyser hurried Frank, still looking for his companion.
Frank Merriwell's BraveryBurt L. Standish
geyser
- a spring that discharges steam and hot water
- British a domestic gas water heater
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Word Origin
C18: from Icelandic Geysir, from Old Norse geysa to gush
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 geyser
n.
1780, from Icelandic Geysir, name of a hot spring in the valley of Haukadal, literally "the gusher," from Old Norse geysa "to gush," from Proto-Germanic *gausjan, from PIE *gheus-, from root *gheu- "to pour" (see found (v.2)).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
geyser
[gī′zər]
- A natural hot spring that regularly ejects a spray of steam and boiling water into the air.
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.