moraine

From French moraine, from Savoyard Italian morena, from Franco-Provençal mor, morre (“muzzle, snout”), from Vulgar Latin *murrum. Compare morion.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /məˈɹeɪn/, /mɒˈɹeɪn/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /məˈɹeɪn/
• Rhymes: -eɪn
• Hyphenation: mo‧raine

moraine (plural moraines)

1. (geology) An accumulation of rocks and debris carried and deposited by a glacier.
   • 1896, James Edward Todd, The Moraines of the Missouri Coteau, and Their Attendant Deposits, US Geological Survey, Bulletin No. 144, page 47,

     This fact is suggestive in connection with the question whether the moraines mark different epochs of the ice age or different stages in the recession of the ice of one epoch.

     This moraine, like the previous ones, influenced the drainage of the country. Several streams have evidently been located or directed by the influence of this moraine.

   • 1959, Robert David Miller, Ernest Dobrovolny, Surficial Geology of Anchorage and Vicinity, Alaska, US Geological Survey, Bulletin No. 1093, page 61,

     Whether this advance beyond the Elmendorf Moraine is a pre-Naptowne Wisconsin or is merely a fluctuation of the Naptowne glacier that deposited the end moraine is unclear.

   • 1997, Robert Phillip Sharp, Allen F. Glazner, Geology Underfoot in Death Valley and Owens Valley, Mountain Press Publishing, page 241,

     Moraines that originate along the lateral margins of an ice stream are naturally called lateral moraines. Many lateral moraines perch high on the walls of glaciated valleys.

• ground moraine (“moraine found at the base of a glacier”)
• lateral moraine (“moraine of eroded debris carried along the glacier’s edge”)
• push moraine, pushed moraine (“moraine of unstratified glacial sediment pushed by the terminus of a lowland glacier into a pile or linear ridge”)
• terminal moraine, end moraine (“moraine of rubble dropped at the foot of a melting glacier”)

• moanier, romaine

From Savoyard Italian morena, from Franco-Provençal mor, morre (“muzzle, snout”), from Vulgar Latin *murrum.

• IPA^(key): /mɔ.ʁɛn/

moraine f (plural moraines)

1. moraine

• “moraine” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

• romaine, Romaine