Lexic.us

Definition of Glacier

1. Noun. A slowly moving mass of ice.

Definition of Glacier

1. n. An immense field or stream of ice, formed in the region of perpetual snow, and moving slowly down a mountain slope or valley, as in the Alps, or over an extended area, as in Greenland.

Definition of Glacier

1. Noun. A large body of ice which flows under its own mass, usually downhill. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Glacier

1. a huge mass of ice [n -S]

Medical Definition of Glacier

1. An immense field or stream of ice, formed in the region of perpetual snow, and moving slowly down a mountain slope or valley, as in the Alps, or over an extended area, as in Greenland. The mass of compacted snow forming the upper part of a glacier is called the firn, or neve; the glacier proper consist of solid ice, deeply crevassed where broken up by irregularities in the slope or direction of its path. A glacier usually carries with it accumulations of stones and dirt called moraines, which are designated, according to their position, as lateral, medial, or terminal (see Moraine). The common rate of flow of the Alpine glaciers is from ten to twenty inches per day in summer, and about half that in winter. Glacier theory, the theory that large parts of the frigid and temperate zones were covered with ice during the glacial, or ice, period, and that, by the agency of this ice, the loose materials on the earth's surface, called drift or diluvium, were transported and accumulated. Origin: F. Glacier, fr. Glace ice, L. Glacies. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Glacier

Literary usage of Glacier

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Switzerland and the Adjacent Portions of Italy, Savoy, and Tyrol: Handbook by Karl Baedeker (Firm) (1907)
"We next pass through a tunnel, noticing a beautiful waterfall on the right, and reach (29 M.) helle (p. 364). 82. From the Rhone glacier to Brigue. ..."

2. The Geographical Journal by Royal Geographical Society (Great Britain). (1903)
"... (63) South bank of first right-hand tributary of the Godwin-Austen glacier ; (64) North bank of first right-hand tributary of the Godwin-Austen glacier ..."

3. Encyclopaedia Britannica, a Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, Literature and edited by Hugh Chisholm (1910)
"Emerging, then, from the snow-field as pure granular ice the glacier gradually ... As a glacier is a very brittle body any abrupt change in gradient will ..."

4. The Encyclopedia Americana: A Library of Universal Knowledge (1919)
"The life of a glacier is one eternal grind. Its draining streams are always milky with rock mud rubbed off its bed, and separated from the large detached ..."

5. Encyclopaedia Britannica: A Standard Work of Reference in Art, Literature (1907)
"A glacier usually protrudes into a valley far below the limit of perpetual ... Sometimes a glacier is seen to have withdrawn very far within its old limits, ..."

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