Definitions

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

  • noun An elongated lowland between ranges of mountains, hills, or other uplands, often having a river or stream running along the bottom.
  • noun An extensive area of land drained or irrigated by a river system.
  • noun A depression or hollow resembling or suggesting a valley, as the point at which the two slopes of a roof meet.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The depression between two ridges of a tooth, typically shown in such molars as those of the tapir and mastodon: correlated with lake, which is a depression surrounded by a raised ridge of enamel such as occurs in the molars of a horse.
  • noun A depression, or a relatively low and somewhat level area, more or less completely inclosed by hills or mountains; the basin of a stream of any size, or the area drained by it, and, in accordance with more general usage, the part of that area which lies near the stream and is not much raised above its level.
  • noun Hence, any similar depression of any size.
  • noun Specifically, in architecture, the internal angle formed by the meeting of two inclined sides of a roof.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The space inclosed between ranges of hills or mountains; the strip of land at the bottom of the depressions intersecting a country, including usually the bed of a stream, with frequently broad alluvial plains on one or both sides of the stream. Also used figuratively.
  • noun The place of meeting of two slopes of a roof, which have their plates running in different directions, and form on the plan a reëntrant angle.
  • noun The depression formed by the meeting of two slopes on a flat roof.
  • noun (Arch.) a board for the reception of the lead gutter in the valley of a roof. The valley board and lead gutter are not usual in the United States.
  • noun (Arch.) the rafter which supports the valley.
  • noun (Arch.) a roof having one or more valleys. See Valley, 2, above.

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

  • noun An elongated depression between hills or mountains, often with a river flowing through it.
  • noun The area which drains into a river.
  • noun Any structure resembling one, e.g., the meeting point of two pitched roofs.
  • noun The internal angle formed by the intersection of two sloping roof planes.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a long depression in the surface of the land that usually contains a river

Etymologies

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

[Middle English valey, from Old French valee, from Vulgar Latin *vallāta, from Latin vallēs; see wel- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

French vallée, Old French valee, from Latin vallēs/vallis

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Examples

  • As mentioned then, opposite Banz on the other side of the Main valley is the famous Shrine of the Fourteen Holy Helpers - Vierzehnheiligen - which we visit today.

    Catholic Bamberg: Vierzehnheiligen 2009

  • But the term valley would convey an erroneous idea, since the space between these two dominant ranges is filled with numerous cross chains, making the mountain character predominant, while the valleys are exceptional.

    North Carolina and its Resources. North Carolina. Board of Agriculture. 1896

  • Similarly, a valley is a pretty sophisticated thing, but not as sophisticated as the laws of geology that are able to form it, or the physics that permits the geology, and so on.

    A Fine-Tuned Multiverse 2010

  • Due to the amount of wetlands, as lagoons, marshes, swamps, and mangroves to the coast, and its location in the northernmost part of the continent, the valley is the place of arrival of many migratory species of birds of prey, waterfowl, and songbirds during the northern winters.

    Sinú Valley dry forests 2008

  • The whole Ottawa valley is an earthquake zone but has never had one.

    The Conservatives Need To Back Off On Linda Keen « Unambiguously Ambidextrous 2008

  • I would guess the valley is a good ten degrees celcius colder that Guadalajara at 5,000 feet.

    On Sex 2006

  • The ranchers feel like the valley is theirs because they paid for it, many of them with their lives, and those that survived, with their youth.

    Scripting News for 3/19/2006 « Scripting News Annex 2006

  • I would guess the valley is a good ten degrees celcius colder that Guadalajara at 5,000 feet.

    On Sex 2006

  • I would guess the valley is a good ten degrees celcius colder that Guadalajara at 5,000 feet.

    On Sex 2006

  • I would guess the valley is a good ten degrees celcius colder that Guadalajara at 5,000 feet.

    On Sex 2006

  • Before European subsidies began to dry up and Asian companies grew to dominate the solar market, Thalheim and its surrounding areas were the heartland of PV manufacturing, also known as Solar Valley.

    A new kind of solar cell is coming: is it the future of green energy? Mark Peplow 2023

Comments

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  • The king said the cubby would do for his valley -- meaning me. HF 26

    December 7, 2006