ice falln.
/ˈʌɪs fɔːl/, U.S. /ˈˌaɪs ˈˌfɔl/, /ˈˌaɪs ˈˌfɑl/ 1. A steep icy slope characterized by crevasses and pinnacles of ice, formed as a glacier moves down a gradient; a cataract of ice. (The principal use.)
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > water > ice > body of ice > glacier > [noun] > steep part like water-fall
ice fall1803
1803 S. T. Coleridge Coll. Lett. II. 996 Ye ice-falls! Ye that from the Mountain's brow Adown enormous Ravines steeply slope.
1860 J. Tyndall Glaciers of Alps i. xv. 100 We were amid the wild chasms at the brow of the ice-fall.
1942 C. A. Cotton Climatic Accidents Landscape-making xi. 138 ‘Ice falls’..often with crowded ridges and pinnacles sharpened by ablation.
1987 J. Curran K2 (1989) ii. xiii. 153 About halfway up the icefall we stopped to change our headtorch batteries, by now very dim.
2005 R. Wicander & J. S. Morse Essentials of Geol. (ed. 4) xiv. 327/2 In some cases, a valley glacier descends over such a steep precipice that crevasses break up the ice into a jumble of blocks and spires, and an ice fall develops.
2. The fall of a mass of ice; (also) an avalanche of fallen ice.
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1845 G. B. Cheever Wanderings of Pilgrim xviii. 239 Each time the report was followed, after a moment or two of silence, by two rushing ice-falls.
1861 L. L. Noble After Icebergs 261 Then the ice-fall, with its ringing, rumbling, crashing roar, and the heavy, explosion-like voice of the final plunge, followed by the wild, frantic dashing of the waters.
1914 Trans. Royal Soc. Edinb. 49 844 The trifling amount of ice-falls from the cliffs witnessed during the winter season of 1903 and the summer 1903-04 is another indication of their slow movement.
1981 Syracuse (N.Y.) Herald-Amer. 28 June a4/2 Two park rangers return to Camp Muir..after a trip to Ingraham Flats, where 11 climbers were buried by an icefall last Sunday.
2003 R. MacFarlane Mountains of Mind (2004) vi. 170 Merzbacher was..nearly crushed by a rock earthquake which also triggered an ice-fall.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2012; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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