Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A mass of the earth's crust that lies between two faults and is higher than the surrounding land.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun geology an area of the earth's surface which is raised relative to surrounding land

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[German, from Middle High German hurst, thicket, from Old High German.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

German Horst ("heap").

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word horst.

Examples

  • A horst is a false hope of victory; nor does it deliver anyone by its great strength.

    Jeff Schweitzer: Iraq as a Holy War: Why Praying for Divine Support Is a Bad Idea 2009

  • The first fact that we infer from the former existence of such a temperature distribution is the improbability, indeed the impossibility, that anything resembling a rigid obstacle, or deep-seated "horst," can have existed beneath the present surface-level, and opposed the northerly movement of the deep-lying synclines.

    The Birth-Time of the World and Other Scientific Essays John Joly 1895

  • The weakness of the theory of the "horst" is manifest, however, in many of its other applications; if not, indeed, in all.

    The Birth-Time of the World and Other Scientific Essays John Joly 1895

  • The rift valley narrowed slightly where a horst protruded and, from the narrow defile, emerged one of the largest creatures that Kai had ever seen, its stalky, awkward gait frightening in its inexorable progress.

    Cattle Town 2010

  • The mountains are a horst of Precambrian basement metamorphosed granites thrust above the surrounding plains during the formation of the western (Albertine) rift valley.

    Rwenzori Mountains National Park, Uganda 2009

  • The mountains of western Anatolia extend from east to west and form a horst-graben system with deep furrows created by rivers such as the Edremit, Bakırçay, Gediz, Küçükmenderes and Büyük Menderes.

    Aegean and Western Turkey sclerophyllous and mixed forests 2008

  • A horst fault is the development of two reverse faults causing a block of rock to be pushed up (Figure 12).

    Folding and faulting in the Earth's crust 2007

  • The rift valley narrowed slightly where a horst protruded and, from the narrow defile, emerged one of the largest creatures that Kai had ever seen, its stalky, awkward gait frightening in its inexorable progress.

    Dinosaur Planet McCaffrey, Anne 1978

  • There is no need to labour this question; the horst cannot have existed.

    The Birth-Time of the World and Other Scientific Essays John Joly 1895

  • Early in the morning Mutio horst himselfe and his wife, his maide and a man, and no more, and away he rides to his grange house, wher, after he had brok his fast, he took his leave, and away towards

    Arabian nights. English Anonymous 1855

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.