floe

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“
Sometimes one did not see the blink until the floe was almost at the bows, and when the look-out's startled cry reached the bridge one must trust to luck and pull the helm over quick.

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Definitions (5)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun An ice floe.
  2. noun A segment that has separated from such an ice mass.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (1)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

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Examples (50)

  • Ever since the film "An Inconvenient Truth" showed a polar bear swimming towards a solitary and fragile ice floe, the endangered species has become a symbol of the consequences of climate change. —  IPS Inter Press Service
  • Ever since the film 'An Inconvenient Truth' showed a polar bear swimming towards a solitary and fragile ice floe, the endangered species has become a symbol of the consequences of climate change. —  Global Issues News Headlines
  • Aloo-ki loses her dog team on an ice floe, and as she goes about looking for them, she comes upon a very large igloo - from which papa, mama, and baby polar bear just departed. —  BellaOnline - The Voice of Women
  • So the voyagers remained drifting on the ice-floe, about four miles in circumference, but by no means assured from disruption, which might occur at any moment The ice continued to drift, and now and then pieces broke off. —  Notable Voyagers From Columbus to Nordenskiold
  • So silent was its sweep, one might imagine oneself to be upon land; yet, as she crept quickly out of her sleeping-bag, she saw at once that the motion of the floe was arrested and off to the right she read the reason. —  The Blue Envelope
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This word has been looked up 83 times.

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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Probably from Norwegian flo, layer, from Old Norse flō; see plāk-1 in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Another form of flaw, a flake, fragment, etc., from Danish flage = Swedish flaga = Norwegian flak, a flake, in comp. Danish is-flage = Swedish is-flaga = Norwegian is-flak, dial. is-flake, is-flōk, an ice-floe: see flaw, flake, and flag.
 

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/floʊ/
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