Ice age

noun, slang

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A period of long-term reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence of major polar ice sheets that reach the ocean and calve icebergs.

    "The earth is currently in the Late Cenozoic Ice Age, an ice age that began 33.9 million years ago with the Antarctic Ice Cap."

  2. 2
    Alternative letter-case form of ice age. alt-of

    "[…] and the sloping collection of fractured rocks—known as talus—that tumbled down from the quartzite bluffs during the repeated freezings and unfreezings of the last Ice Age."

  3. 3
    any period of time during which glaciers covered a large part of the earth's surface wordnet
  4. 4
    Any of several glacial periods (within a scientific ice age) marked by episodes of extensive glaciation alternating with episodes of relative warmth (interglacial). colloquial

    "The cause of ice ages, Köppen decided, is to be found in cool summers, not brutal winters."

Etymology

Perhaps a calque of German Eiszeit.

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