Refine this word faster
Avalanche
Definitions
- 1 A large mass or body of snow and ice sliding swiftly down a mountain side, or falling down a precipice.
"They were drinking from a fountain / That was pouring like an avalanche / Coming down the mountain"
- 2 a sudden appearance of an overwhelming number of things wordnet
- 3 A fall of earth, rocks, etc., similar to that of an avalanche of snow or ice.
- 4 a slide of large masses of snow and ice and mud down a mountain wordnet
- 5 A sudden, great, or irresistible descent or influx; anything like an avalanche in suddenness and overwhelming quantity. broadly
"Yes, but she talked it away. She uses a whole language to herself. Her discourse is an avalanche of words, beneath which the hearers are overwhelmed."
- 1 To descend like an avalanche. intransitive
"Whenever the stage stopped to change horses, we would wake up, and try to recollect where we were—[…] We began to get into country, now, threaded here and there with little streams. These had high, steep banks on each side, and every time we flew down one bank and scrambled up the other, our party inside got mixed somewhat. First we would all be down in a pile at the forward end of the stage, nearly in a sitting posture, and in a second we would shoot to the other end, and stand on our heads. […] ¶ Every time we avalanched from one end of the stage to the other, the Unabridged Dictionary would come too; and every time it came it damaged somebody."
- 2 gather into a huge mass and roll down a mountain, of snow wordnet
- 3 To come down upon; to overwhelm. transitive
"The shelf broke and the boxes avalanched the workers."
- 4 To propel downward like an avalanche. transitive
"When our artist and I were dropped down our first coal-mine, we felt a leetle bit anxious. It was something new. But we have been avalanched down the incline from Peak Forest, and boomeranged round the sudden curve at Rowsley, and have run the gauntlet at Penistone and King’s Cross without ever taking the precaution to say “God help us.”"
Etymology
From French avalanche, from Franco-Provençal (Savoy) avalançhe, blend of aval (“downhill”) and standard lavençhe, from Vulgar Latin *labanka (compare Occitan lavanca, Italian valanga), of uncertain origin, perhaps an alteration of Late Latin lābīna (“landslide”) (compare Franco-Provençal (Dauphiné) lavino, Romansch lavina), from Latin lābēs, from lābor (“to slip, slide”).
From French avalanche, from Franco-Provençal (Savoy) avalançhe, blend of aval (“downhill”) and standard lavençhe, from Vulgar Latin *labanka (compare Occitan lavanca, Italian valanga), of uncertain origin, perhaps an alteration of Late Latin lābīna (“landslide”) (compare Franco-Provençal (Dauphiné) lavino, Romansch lavina), from Latin lābēs, from lābor (“to slip, slide”).
See also for "avalanche"
Next best steps
Mini challenge
Unscramble this word: avalanche