ice shelf


noun
  1. an ice sheet projecting into coastal waters so that the end floats.

Origin of ice shelf

1
First recorded in 1910–15

Words Nearby ice shelf

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

How to use ice shelf in a sentence

  • We had traveled five miles on the ice shelf above the foaming sea.

    North-Pole Voyages | Zachariah Atwell Mudge
  • To raise the packages from the floe to the top of the ice-shelf, a "flying-fox" was rigged.

    The Home of the Blizzard | Douglas Mawson
  • The face of the Shackleton Ice-Shelf 100 miles north of the mainland.

    The Home of the Blizzard | Douglas Mawson
  • The open pools gave excellent fishing, and the upper ice shelf protected them perfectly from all enemies.

    Secret of the Woods | William J. Long

British Dictionary definitions for ice shelf

ice shelf

noun
  1. a thick mass of ice that is permanently attached to the land but projects into and floats on the sea

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