Ravine
noun ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 A deep narrow valley or gorge in the earth's surface worn by running water.
"Sometimes the earth stretched up towards them with peaks of mountains, sometimes it fell away in steep ravines, blue rivers sang to them as they passed above them, or very faintly came the song of breezes in lone orchards, and far away the sea sang mighty dirges of old forsaken isles."
- 2 Alternative form of raven (“rapine, rapacity; prey, plunder”). alt-of, alternative, archaic
"And he, shall he, Man, her last work, who seem’d so fair, […] Who trusted God was love indeed And love Creation’s final law— Tho’ Nature, red in tooth and claw With ravine, shriek’d against his creed— Who loved, who suffer’d countless ills, Who battled for the True, the Just, Be blown about the desert dust, Or seal’d within the iron hills?"
- 3 a deep narrow steep-sided valley (especially one formed by running water) wordnet
Example
More examples"It is likely that nobody can accurately estimate the depth and breadth of this ravine."
Etymology
Borrowed from French ravin (“a gully”), from Old French raviner (“to pillage, sweep down, cascade”), from ravine (“robbery, rapine; violent rush of water, waterfall, avalanche; impetuosity, spirit”), from Latin rapīna (cf. rapine).
From Middle English ravene, ravine, from Old French raviner (“rush, seize by force”), itself from ravine (“rapine”), from Latin rapīna (“plundering, loot”), itself from rapere (“seize, plunder, abduct”).
Related phrases
More for "ravine"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.