EXAMPLES | WORD ORIGIN | IDIOMS noun a large floating mass of ice, detached from a glacier and carried out to sea.
Informal an emotionally cold person.
Australian Informal a person who swims or surfs regularly in winter.
Idioms tip of the iceberg , the first hint or revelation of something larger or more complex: The new evidence in the case is just the tip of the iceberg.
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Origin of iceberg 1765–75; half Anglicization, half adoption of Dutch ijsberg ice mountain; cognate with German Eisberg, Swedish isberg
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Related Words for iceberg disinterested ,
abstract ,
unbiased ,
candid ,
sober ,
detached ,
unemotional ,
icecap ,
berg ,
floe ,
chunk ,
glaze ,
hail ,
crystal ,
icicle ,
glacier ,
sleet ,
diamonds ,
hailstone ,
permafrost Examples from the Web for iceberg Contemporary Examples of iceberg In Russia, Uganda, and elsewhere around the world, legal change is the tip of the iceberg .
The recent botched executions are just the tip of the iceberg .
The logic here was a little unsound—if I remember the S.S. Titanic story, “Iceberg ” would have been the right name.
Confusion over the catcher's eye black is just the tip of the iceberg for this befuddled limey.
As far as cash-grabs go, the VIP pass is only the tip of the iceberg .
Historical Examples of iceberg There is an iceberg all ready to hand; weve only got to hollow it out.
I cast anchor under her lee—and 'twas like tyin' up to an iceberg at first.
Then, with Johnson's assistance, he built a resting-place in an iceberg .
Does the pine contradict the rose or the lotusland the iceberg ?
Something would have been hurt, but it would not have been the iceberg .
British Dictionary definitions for iceberg noun a large mass of ice floating in the sea, esp a mass that has broken off a polar glacier
tip of the iceberg the small visible part of something, esp a problem or difficulty, that is much larger
slang , mainly US a person considered to have a cold or reserved manner
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Word Origin for iceberg C18: probably part translation of Middle Dutch ijsberg ice mountain; compare Norwegian isberg
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for iceberg n. 1774, partial loan-translation of Dutch ijsberg , literally "ice mountain," from ijs "ice" (see ice (n.)) + berg "mountain" (see barrow (n.2)). An earlier term was sea-hill (1690s). Phrase tip of the iceberg , in a figurative sense, first recorded 1962. Iceberg lettuce attested from 1893.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
A massive body of floating ice that has broken away from a glacier or ice field. Most of an iceberg lies underwater, but because ice is not as dense as water, about one ninth of it remains above the surface.
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
A large piece of ice that has broken away from a glacier at the shore and floated out to sea.
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Note Most of the ice in an iceberg is underwater, leaving only the “tip of the iceberg” visible — a fact that is often alluded to in discussions of subjects in which the most important aspects are hidden from view.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
