| 释义 |
▪ I. crevasse, n.|krɪˈvæs|
[a. mod.F. crevasse = OF. crevace crevice. This F. form has been adopted by Alpine climbers in Switzerland in sense 1, and in U.S. from the French of Louisiana, etc., in sense 2; these being too large for the notion associated with the corresponding Eng. form crevice.]
1. a. A fissure or chasm in the ice of a glacier, usually of great depth, and sometimes of great width.
1823F. Clissold Ascent Mt. Blanc 12 The crevasses are supposed to be, in some places, several hundred feet deep. 1872C. King Mountains Sierra Nev. xi. 231 A glacier, riven with deep crevasses, yawning fifty or sixty feet wide.
b. transf. Any similar deep crack or chasm.
1859R. F. Burton Centr. Afr. in Jrnl. Geog. Soc. XXIX. 213 The broad open prospect of this vast crevasse. 1863Dicey Federal St. I. 20 The struggles of the floundering horses to drag the carriages out of the ruts and crevasses.
2. U.S. A breach in the bank of a river, canal, etc.; used esp. of a breach in the levée or artificial bank of the lower Mississippi. Also fig.
1814H. M. Brackenridge Views Louisiana 179 The terrors excited by a crevasse or breaking of the levee. 1819Edin. Rev. XXXII. 240 A breach in the levée, or a crevasse, as it is termed, is the greatest calamity which can befal the landholder. 1850B. Taylor Eldorado i. (1862) 7 The crevasse, by which half the city had lately been submerged, was closed. 1850Congressional Globe App. 149/2 A moral crevasse has occurred: fanaticism and ignorance..have accumulated into a mighty flood. 1897G. W. Cable Old Creole Days 104 The Anglo-American flood that was presently to burst in a crevasse of immigration upon the delta.
▪ II. crevasse, v.|krɪˈvæs|
[a. F. crevasse-r to form into crevasses, f. crevasse n.]
To fissure with crevasses. Chiefly in creˈvassed ppl. a., having crevasses; fissured, as a glacier.
1855J. D. Forbes Tour Mt. Blanc viii. 100 It is not much crevassed. 1856Kane Arct. Expl. II. xxvii. 271 A steep crevassed hill. 1892Pall Mall G. 5 Aug. 6/1 The glaciers..are crevassed to the very foot. |