moraine
a ridge, mound, or irregular mass of unstratified glacial drift, chiefly boulders, gravel, sand, and clay.
a deposit of such material left on the ground by a glacier.
Origin of moraine
1Other words from moraine
- mo·rain·al, mo·rain·ic, adjective
Words Nearby moraine
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use moraine in a sentence
We managed to downclimb a thousand meters until, in the evening, it became clear that we wouldn’t make it to the moraine that day, and thus our ninth bivouac was upon us.
A 237-Hour Nightmare: Inside this Terrifying, Frostbitten First Ascent of Nepal’s Baruntse | cobrien | January 30, 2022 | Outside OnlineIn effect, these moraines serve as anchors in times of change.
As long as the moraine survives, it will remain a bulwark, potentially stretching Taku’s retreat over centuries instead of decades.
Materials I found in the moraine later showed that it’s been collecting dust for at least 700,000 years.
What Dust From Space Tells Us About Ourselves | Natalie Wolchover | February 4, 2021 | Quanta MagazineI’m still working on a collection that I made in 2006 that took me less than five minutes to collect, in a moraine in Antarctica.
What Dust From Space Tells Us About Ourselves | Natalie Wolchover | February 4, 2021 | Quanta Magazine
Steck crumpled to the moraine, and it looked as though he'd be bludgeoned to death.
Breaking Mount Everest’s Glass Ceiling | Amanda Padoan, Peter Zuckerman | March 30, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTWe now put on the rope again, and so crossed the easy glacier which led down to the moraine on which I had been two months before.
Mount Everest the Reconnaissance, 1921 | Charles Kenneth Howard-BuryUltimately I struggled across the glacier, bearing various burdens, to meet them as they came down on a parallel moraine.
Mount Everest the Reconnaissance, 1921 | Charles Kenneth Howard-BuryI camped, at about 19,500 feet, on the moraine-covered glacier opposite the junction of the northerly branch from Pks.
Mount Everest the Reconnaissance, 1921 | Charles Kenneth Howard-BuryA terminal moraine, a mile and a half in depth, separates it from the sea.
Over the Rocky Mountains to Alaska | Charles Warren StoddardToward evening I clambered down to the cottage by moraine Lake.
Birds of the Rockies | Leander Sylvester Keyser
British Dictionary definitions for moraine
/ (mɒˈreɪn) /
a mass of debris, carried by glaciers and forming ridges and mounds when deposited
Origin of moraine
1Derived forms of moraine
- morainal or morainic, adjective
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Scientific definitions for moraine
[ mə-rān′ ]
A mass of till (boulders, pebbles, sand, and mud) deposited by a glacier, often in the form of a long ridge. Moraines typically form because of the plowing effect of a moving glacier, which causes it to pick up rock fragments and sediments as it moves, and because of the periodic melting of the ice, which causes the glacier to deposit these materials during warmer intervals.♦ A moraine deposited in front of a glacier is a terminal moraine. ♦ A moraine deposited along the side of a glacier is a lateral moraine. ♦ A moraine deposited down the middle of a glacier is a medial moraine. Medial moraines are actually the combined lateral moraines of two glaciers that have merged.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Cultural definitions for moraine
[ (muh-rayn) ]
A pile of debris, often extending for miles, deposited by a glacier. It is composed of rock fragments transported by the ice, which are left behind when the ice melts.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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