alp

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But the goats were well pleased with the rich green grass of the alp, and were unwilling to leave the pasture.

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Definitions (8)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun A high mountain.
  2. noun A very large mound or mass.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (3)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

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Examples (21)

  • It's not like I'd be giving reports about this or that alp, or playing domestique on some tour de coolness. —  Bardiac
  • The whole island was anciently called Albion, which seems to have been softened from Alpion; because the word alp, in some of the original western languages, generally signifies very high lands, or hills; as this isle appears to those who approach it from the Continent. —  A Museum for Young Gentlemen and Ladies Or, a Private Tutor for Little Masters and Misses
  • Brunetičre, "Études Critiques," Tome III, p. 300 5] Mr. Perry thinks that one of the first instances of the use of the word romantic is by the diarist Evelyn in 1654: "There is also, on the side of this horrid alp, a very romantic seat." —  A History of English Romanticism in the Eighteenth Century
  • The sun is visible, the sky clear and blue, and below us stretches a grassy slope like a Swiss "alp." —  Mr. Fortescue An Andean Romance
  • The air was delicious with the scent of flowers and shrubs; there were alp-roses everywhere, and purple gentian, and the little iva blossom that has an aromatic smell, and on tiny moss ledges the cold white stars of the edelweiss seemed to be keeping themselves as far above reach as they could. —  Whosoever Shall Offend
 

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Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Back-formation from the Alps .

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English alpe. In Norfolk (England) the bullfinch is called blood-olph, and the green grosbeak green-olf, where olph, olf, may be the same as alp; cf. ouphe and the other forms of elf, q. v. Possibly a humorous use, with a similar allusion to that in bullfinch, of Middle English alp, elp, from Anglo-Saxon elp, ylp, an elephant, from Latin elephas: see elephant.
  2. Sing. from plural alps, from Latin alpes, high mountains, specifically those of Switzerland; said to be of Celtic origin: cf. Gaelic alp, Irish ailp, a high mountain; so Old High German Alpun, Alpi, Middle High German G. Alpen, the Alps, Middle High German albe, G. (Swiss) alpe, a mountain pasture.
 

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/ælp/
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