moulin

American  

[moo-lan] / muˈlɛ̃ /

noun

1. a nearly vertical shaft or cavity worn in a glacier by surface water falling through a crack in the ice.

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Moulin ¹ British  

/ mulɛ̃ /

noun

1. Jean (ʒɑ̃). 1899–1943, French lawyer and Resistance hero; Chairman of the National Council of the Resistance (1943): tortured to death by the Nazis

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moulin ² British  

/ ˈmuːlɪn /

noun

1. a vertical shaft in a glacier, maintained by a constant descending stream of water and debris

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Etymology

Origin of moulin

1855–60; < French < Late Latin molīnum mill ¹

Example Sentences

"In some cases, the ice at the fracture surfaces has also shifted in height, as if it were raised more on one side of the moulin than on the other," Humbert noted.

From Science Daily • Jan. 5, 2026

He began to lower himself into the vertical cavern that, in the summer, fills with the chaos of a waterfall — a moulin.

From Washington Post • Dec. 23, 2020

In Greenland, he once sent a flock of rubber ducks hurtling down a mile-long ice shaft known as a moulin.

From The New Yorker • Oct. 17, 2016

Shjon had been riding a snowmobile Saturday when he fell into a 150-foot-deep glacial moulin, a hole created by surface water.

From Reuters • Apr. 15, 2013

The depth of the moulin could not be thus ascertained, but we soon found a second and still larger one which gave us better data.

From The Glaciers of the Alps Being a narrative of excursions and ascents, etc. by Tyndall, John