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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.

See Examples For:

ice shelf

"As a result, the channels can grow and, in the worst case, weaken the stability of the entire ice shelf."

From Science Daily ● May 10, 2026

"Roughly 90% of the dissolved iron coming out of the ice shelf cavity comes from deep waters and sediments outside the cavity, not from meltwater," Chinni said.

From Science Daily ● Feb. 28, 2026

No ice shelf setting is the same, but the researchers say their findings from the former British-Irish ice sheet could help understand how Antarctica might respond to today's rapidly warming climate.

From BBC ● Apr. 24, 2025

The icebergs are comparable in size to some of the smaller icebergs found off present-day Antarctica, such as blocks that calved from the Larsen B ice shelf in 2002.

From BBC ● Apr. 24, 2025

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