scree
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of scree
First recorded in 1775–85, scree is from the Old Norse word skritha landslide
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.
Above 13,000 feet, the trail disappears, turning the final push into a steep, tortuous slog up loose scree guided only by cairns — stone towers left by previous climbers to mark the way.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 2, 2023
Up in the mountains, they cling to “pockets in shifting scree, where gravel and rocks form barely the idea of soil,” Chips said.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 9, 2023
They parked on the far edge of the outcrop, then continued on foot through a sloping scree field of glassy black stone until they reached a view of the mud flats to the east.
From Salon ● Jul. 7, 2023
We met along the steep scree wall between Torre Brunico and Colfosco when I asked Stephen, who had a GPS device on his backpack, how much higher we had to climb.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 26, 2022
The going was loose and he was heavy, and more than once the scree shifted under his feet and carried him down again in a scramble of dust and gravel.
From "The Amber Spyglass" by Philip Pullman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
