Calve
verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 To give birth to a calf. intransitive
"The farmer could tell Bessie was about to calve."
- 2 give birth to (a calf) wordnet
- 3 To assist in a cow’s giving birth to a calf. intransitive
"The farmer calved Bessie for almost two hours."
- 4 release ice wordnet
- 5 To give birth to (a calf). transitive
Show 3 more definitions
- 6 To shed a large piece, e.g. an iceberg or a smaller block of ice (coming off an iceberg). especially, figuratively, intransitive
"The glacier was starting to calve even as we watched."
- 7 To break off. especially, figuratively, intransitive
"The sea was dangerous because of icebergs calving off the nearby glacier."
- 8 To shed (a large piece, e.g. an iceberg); to set loose (a mass of ice), e.g. a block of ice (coming off an iceberg). especially, figuratively, transitive
"The glacier was starting to calve an iceberg even as we watched."
Example
More examples"Within national marine sanctuaries's protected waters, giant humpback whales breed and calve their young, temperate reefs flourish, and shipwrecks tell stories of our maritime history."
Etymology
From Middle English calven, from Old English *calfian, cealfian, from Proto-West Germanic *kalbōn, from Proto-Germanic *kalbōną (“to calve”), from *kalbaz (“calf”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian koolvje, Dutch kalven, German Low German kalven, German kalben, Swedish kalva, Icelandic kálfa.
Related phrases
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.