Couloir
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A steep gorge along a mountainside.
"Those deep, dark slots in a mountain known as couloirs are often the most obvious routes of ascent."
- 2 A corridor or passage. rare
"It was a hole, in the fence, a large irregular hole, caused by numberless winds, numberless rains, or by a boar, or by a bull, flying, pursuing, a wild boar, a wild bull, blind with fear, blind with rage, or who knows perhaps with carnal desire, crashing at this point, through the fence, weakened by numberless winds, numberless rains. Through this hole I passed, without hurt, or damage to my pretty uniform, and found myself looking about me, for I had not yet recovered my aplomb, in the couloir."
Example
More examples"Those deep, dark slots in a mountain known as couloirs are often the most obvious routes of ascent."
Etymology
Borrowed from French couloir (literally “corridor”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.