combe
/kuːm
/(also coomb or coombe)
noun
1British A short valley or hollow on a hillside or coastline, especially in southern England.The return route used a short section of the Ridgeway and then the footpath down a sheltered coombe and a short roam on newly mapped access land....
- It has 300 miles of exquisite coastline, the bleak beauty of Dartmoor, a chunk of unspoilt Exmoor, as well as its characteristic combes, vast hanging copses of oak and beech, and rugged, still-healthy rivers.
- There are several loops which take you down into the steep, thickly wooded ‘combes’ beneath the hills.
1.1 Geology A dry valley in a limestone or chalk escarpment.
Origin
Old English cumb, occurring in charters in the names of places in southern England, many of which survive; of Celtic origin, related to cwm.