crevasse

[ kruh-vas ]

noun

1. a fissure, or deep cleft, in glacial ice, the earth's surface, etc.
2. a breach in an embankment or levee.

verb (used with object)

, cre·vassed, cre·vas·sing.

1. to fissure with crevasses.

crevasse

/ krɪˈvæs /

noun

1. a deep crack or fissure, esp in the ice of a glacier
2. a break in a river embankment

verb

1. tr to make a break or fissure in (a dyke, wall, etc)

crevasse

/ krĭ-văs′ /

1. A deep fissure in a glacier or other body of ice. Crevasses are usually caused by differential movement of parts of the ice over an uneven topography.
2. A large, deep fissure in the Earth caused by an earthquake.
3. A wide crack or breach in the bank of a river. Crevasses usually form during floods.
4. ◆ The sediments that spill out through the crevasse and fan out along the external margin of the river's bank form a crevasse splay deposit.

Other Words From

• un·cre·vassed adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of crevasse¹

1805–15, Americanism; < French; crevice

Word History and Origins

Origin of crevasse¹

C19: from French: crevice

Example Sentences

Elected officials for District 4 in Riverside County, which encompasses Thermal, are not blind to the climate crevasse in front of them.

From ProPublica

Traffic jams formed on either side of creaking aluminum ladders that were lashed together to span the gaping crevasses.

From Outside Online

Jumping between scenes of the team airlifting an immobile skier and pulling a man out of a crevasse nine stories deep, The Horn captures the toll of making such dangerous rescues on the alpine peak.

From Outside Online

We make our choices, and we have no way to judge whether they were the right ones — so our experiences and beliefs begin to split along chaotic crevasses of bad luck.

From FiveThirtyEight

Covered in crevasses hundreds of miles long, this place became the first active fault zone found on Mars.

From Quanta Magazine

Some days, she felt as though glaciers were buckling around her and a crevasse yawned beneath her.

From The Daily Beast

With the crawling, for instance, Bradey had been on top of a snow bridge that crossed a crevasse.

From The Daily Beast

At one point he fell down a crevasse and was left dangling in the abyss from a rope, up which he dragged his disintegrating body.

From The Daily Beast

The path to the ancient site winds through a narrow, deep crevasse between the famous red rocks.

From The Daily Beast

A crevasse was made in the levee above New Orleans flooding much of the city.

From Project Gutenberg

Or perhaps the Zab may have found some great crevasse in the mountains which gave it the opportunity that it needed.

From Project Gutenberg

A small crevasse opened near at hand and was a natural receptacle for rubbish.

From Project Gutenberg

A tunnel was driven into the sloping surface of the ice towards a crevasse about a foot wide.

From Project Gutenberg

It was a ticklish business recovering the sledge which hung suspended in the crevasse.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• abyss
• chasm
• fissure