Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun An ice floe.
- noun A segment that has separated from such an ice mass.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Ice formed by the freezing of the surface-water of the polar oceans, and subsequently broken up by the action of the winds and the waves into tabular masses of greater or less size; also, a piece of such ice.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A low, flat mass of floating ice.
- noun (Zoöl.) a seal (
Phoca fœtida ).
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A low, flat mass of
floating ice .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a flat mass of ice (smaller than an ice field) floating at sea
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The fate of three men afloat on a floe is too horrible to think about.
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Maybe their new reporter/commentator, The Killer from Wasilla, could go camp out on an Arctic ice floe and report back to us on how the floe is doin’ sizewize ..
Think Progress » Fox Thinks Winter Chill Disproves Global Warming; Experts Disagree 2010
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Our floe is a heavy one and it withstood the blows it received.
South: the story of Shackleton’s last expedition 1914–1917 2006
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Hockey and football on the floe were our chief recreations, and all hands joined in many a strenuous game.
South: the story of Shackleton’s last expedition 1914–1917 2006
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Near the edge of the floe was a crack in the ice of considerable length, but only eighteen inches or two feet wide, and three or four feet deep.
A Hundred Anecdotes of Animals Percy J. Billinghurst
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They have been recorded up to forty and even fifty miles in length, and they have been called floe bergs, because it was supposed that they froze first as ordinary sea-ice and increased by subsequent additions from below.
The Worst Journey in the World Antarctic 1910-1913 Apsley Cherry-Garrard 1922
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Kalumah when questioned confirmed all that the Lieutenant had said, so that it appeared probable that the island would be drifted to the south like a huge ice-floe, that is to say, to the narrowest part of Behring Strait, which is much frequented in the summer by the fishermen of New Archangel, who are the most experienced mariners of those waters.
The Fur Country 1874
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_ -- Beset against a floe, which is in motion, owing to the pressure of bergs upon its southern face; and as it slowly
Stray Leaves from an Arctic Journal; or, Eighteen Months in the Polar Regions, in Search of Sir John Franklin's Expedition, in the Years 1850-51 Sherard Osborn 1848
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After one of these gales, walking on the floe was a work of much difficulty, in consequence of the irregular surface it presented to the foot.
Stray Leaves from an Arctic Journal; or, Eighteen Months in the Polar Regions, in Search of Sir John Franklin's Expedition, in the Years 1850-51 Sherard Osborn 1848
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I was inclosed had come in contact with another, and that I had been broken off from it, and was floating on the sea with other pieces, which, when collected in large quantities, are termed a floe of ice.
The Pacha of Many Tales Frederick Marryat 1820
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