Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

gla·cier       (glā'shər)  Pronunciation Key  n.   A huge mass of ice slowly flowing over a land mass, formed from compacted snow in an area where snow accumulation exceeds melting and sublimation. [French, from Old French, cold place, from glace, ice, from Vulgar Latin *glacia, from Latin glaciēs; see gel- in Indo-European roots.] gla'ciered adj.

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
glacier 

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

glacier

noun

a slowly moving mass of ice

The American Heritage Science Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

glacier       (glā'shər)  Pronunciation Key  A large mass of ice moving very slowly through a valley or spreading outward from a center. Glaciers form over many years from packed snow in areas where snow accumulates faster than it melts. A glacier is always moving, but when its forward edge melts faster than the ice behind it advances, the glacier as a whole shrinks backward.

American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition - Cite This Source - Share This
glacier

A large mass of ice formed over many years that does not melt during the summer. Glaciers move slowly over an area of land such as a mountain valley.

Note: Glaciers exist in high mountains throughout the temperate zones and cover most of Antarctica. Glaciers recede during warm periods and can expand during cold periods, creating ice ages.

Note: A significant percentage of the water of the Earth is locked up in glaciers.

[Chapter:] Earth Sciences

U.S. Gazetteer - Cite This Source - Share This

Glacier County, MT (county, FIPS 35) Location: 48.70010 N, 113.01862 W
Population (1990): 12121 (4797 housing units)
Area: 7756.4 sq km (land), 109.8 sq km (water)

East Glacier Par, MT Zip code(s): 59434

East Glacier Park Village, MT (CDP, FIPS 22985) Location: 48.44706 N, 113.22233 W
Population (1990): 326 (198 housing units)
Area: 11.3 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)

Glacier, WA Zip code(s): 98244

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Glacier

Gla"cier\, n. [F. glacier, fr. glace ice, L. glacies.] 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.

Note: The mass of compacted snow forming the upper part of a glacier is called the firn, or n['e]v['e]; 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 (Geol.), 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.