ice jam

noun

an obstruction of broken river ice in a narrow part of a channel.
a mass of lake or sea ice broken and piled up against the shore by wind pressure.

Origin of ice jam

First recorded in 1840–50

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Toward the end of the day they were stopped by a small ice-jam which moved forward slowly only to stop them again.
Roosevelt in the Bad Lands | H. Hagedorn.
Just beyond this, a higher and stronger palisade protected the riverbank from the winter ice jam.
On the Edge of the Arctic | Harry Lincoln Sayler
Midsummer's Day and the two following days we were stuck in a heavy ice-jam one hundred miles south of St. Anthony.
A Labrador Doctor | Wilfred Thomason Grenfell
The great ice jam had parted from Rolfe's Island and was swinging out into the open, pushing everything before it.
Homespun Tales | Kate Douglas Wiggin
She didn't catch the wind o' that, lad, till we were navigating our raft downstream agen the ice-jam.
Heralds of Empire | Agnes C. Laut

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