ice shelf

American

noun

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

ice shelf British

noun

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

Etymology

Origin of ice shelf

First recorded in 1910–15

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.

But the bay vacated by the ice shelf was eventually filled with sea-ice "fastened" to the seabed, helping to partly stabilise Hektoria.

From BBC • Nov. 3, 2025

She said the satellites and aerial surveys that created Bedmap3 will allow researchers to better estimate how thick the ice is, particularly in transient zones where the grounded ice changes to a floating ice shelf.

From Salon • Apr. 5, 2025

In May a huge iceberg broke off from an Antarctic ice shelf, drifted, and came to a stop - right in front of “maybe the world’s unluckiest” penguins.

From BBC • Sep. 27, 2024

That finding builds upon previous work led by Banwell that produced the first direct field measurements of ice shelf buckling caused by meltwater ponding and drainage.

From Science Daily • May 3, 2024

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

From North-Pole Voyages by Mudge, Zachariah Atwell

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