Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A large rounded mass of rock lying on the surface of the ground or embedded in the soil.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A loose rock, or one which has been torn from its native bed and transported to some distance. As ordinarily used, the word indicates a piece of rock which is larger than a pebble or cobble, whose edges have become weather-worn and more or less rounded, and which lies upon the surface.
- To wear smooth, as an emery-wheel, by abrading with small flint pebbles. Also spelled bowlder.
Wiktionary
- n. A large piece of stone that can theoretically be moved if enough force is applied.
- n. geology A particle greater than 256 mm in diameter, following the Wentworth scale
- v. To engage in bouldering
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Same as bowlder.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a large smooth mass of rock detached from its place of origin
- n. a town in north central Colorado; Rocky Mountains resort center and university town
Etymologies
- From Middle English bulder, possibly from Swedish bullersten ("noisy stone"), or possibly from Dutch bolder (Wiktionary)
- Middle English bulder, of Scandinavian origin; see bhel-2 in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“After the boulder is a immediate hard right switchback.”
“It would be unsurprising to hear someone remark that the boulder is at the mercy of the elements, although we're more apt to say that it is the river that is at the mercy of this artifact, under the weight of human agency, and of Nash's relentless gaze and choreographic machinations.”
The 25-Year Riverine Journey of a Wooden Boulder Carved out of a Felled 200-Year-Old Oak Tree
“And roll over me a red boulder from the ruins of the Big House.”
“Rabbit and the Gopher construct a crazy contraption -- Eeyore says it won't work -- which saves Roo but knocks loose a boulder from a cliff, exposing a cave.”
“And roll over me a red boulder from the ruins of Wolf House.”
“Mount Auburn is a great Alpine boulder from the glacier of the Aar, a piece of his mountain to stay with him.”
“a chance to look like that high school kid in the TV ad, the one launching a boulder from the foul line and landing it a mile short.”
“And maybe that boulder is actually 20 feet long, so that’s just the tip sticking out.”
“To my dismay the boulder was already occupied by a big ole water mocassin.”
“He points to the larger boulder, which is wedged against what remains of the doorway to the wine chamber.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘boulder’.
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Gene Wolfe
Please contribute your favorite words from any of Gene Wolfe’s books to this prize-winning list.
In case you come across words in this list which are too commonplace to fit in, please ...gallipot, roost, badelaire, oblesque, execration, dhole, amschaspand, arctother, chalcedony, penitence, asimi, autarch and 839 more...
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LIT - Ulysses - key words and phrases
vanish, number one, archangel, commodious, dominie, rubble, glisten, morose, spindle, ventilation, Blessed, christian and 503 more...
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Places In Utah
tooele, rainbow bridge, duchene, bountiful, american fork, deseret, this is the place, temple square, orem, provo, west jordan, great salt lake and 246 more...
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ENVI - Collocations ABC
An extract from the "Zold Tolmacs" project, a HU-EN environmental dictionary compiled by Robert Gulyas in 2000.
AA battery, aa lava, aapa mire, abandon the project, abandon the sewer..., abandoned car, abandoned dyke, abandoned farm, abandoned field, abandoned industr..., abandoned industr..., abandoned land and 5386 more...
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Nouns
ability, man, tree, apple, computer, chip, sheep, word, letter, light, dog, cube and 61 more...
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(more or less) Temporary Urth List
Temporary list is temporary.
Collecting a few words here, which are then to be alloted to other lists.vassal, gnaw, putrescence, liege, pederasty, disseminate, loot, waning, fitful, hiatuse, plow, pious and 292 more...
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the big list
all my wordies
hemiversary, taswegian, beausage, chantepleure, skycandy, hacksilver, shanger, drama pawn, hostage-bride, serpopard, fanwank, lapin and 90 more...
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5-1
Hecko, words! Thanks for staying with me. :-)
avenue, viscous, zeroth, usher, scarcely, viability, snout, sole, purify, riotous, menace, moist and 364 more...
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Linguistic Perps
These words mean business. I dare you to pick a fight with these words. Or make fun of their shoes. The only way these words could possibly get any tougher would be for James Earl Jones to say them...
stein, boulder, cranium, blasphemy, crusher, sarcophagus, vengeance, banshee, pumice, crucible, purgatory, menace and 15 more...
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the geologist
I like rocks. And all the names attributed to rocks and other geologic formations. Also see the earth list.
gneiss, breccia, granite, sedimentary, metamorphic, shale, igneous, geode, gabbro, lapillus, sandstone, limestone and 13 more...
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live thriving words
IE roots of bhel- and a few others
bless, blossom, foil, foliage, folio, folium, cinquefoil, defoliate, exfoliate, feuilleton, perfoliate, milfoil and 67 more...
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to be precise
Tweets
Looking for tweets for boulder.
sumit A lump of rock must be bigger than 256 millimetres (just over ten inches) to be a boulder, according to geologists' Udden-Wentworth scale. Feb 26, 2007