ice sheet

American

noun

a broad, thick sheet of ice covering an extensive area for a long period of time.
a glacier covering a large fraction of a continent.

ice sheet British

noun

a thick layer of ice covering a large area of land for a long time, esp those in Antarctica and Greenland

"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

Etymology

Origin of ice sheet

First recorded in 1870–75

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

If these floating shelves continue to deteriorate, the Antarctic Ice Sheet could contribute even more to future sea-level rise.

From Science Daily

Beneath Greenland, this deep heat source increases the temperature at the bottom of the thick ice sheet, influencing how the ice flows and melts today.

From Science Daily

This natural event is a major contributor to the rapid reduction of ice on the Greenland ice sheet.

From Science Daily

The Greenland ice sheet covers an area around 40 times larger than Switzerland.

From Science Daily

The East Antarctic Ice Sheet, which holds over half of Earth's freshwater, is already losing ice in some coastal zones today.

From Science Daily

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023