ravine
English
Etymology 1
Borrowed from French ravin (“a gully”), from Old French raviner (“to pillage, sweep down, cascade”), from Lua error in Module:utilities at line 142: attempt to perform arithmetic on local 'h' (a nil value), from Latin rapīna (cf. rapine).
Pronunciation
- enPR: rə-vēnʹ, IPA(key): /ɹəˈviːn/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -iːn
Noun
ravine (plural ravines)
- A deep narrow valley or gorge in the earth's surface worn by running water.
- 1905, [Edward Plunkett,] Lord Dunsany, The Gods of Pegāna, London: Elkin Mathews, […], →OCLC, page 46:
- 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.
- 1913, Robert Barr, chapter 3, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad:
- He fell into a reverie, a most dangerous state of mind for a chauffeur, since a fall into reverie on the part of a driver may mean a fall into a ravine on the part of the machine.
Derived terms
- ravine-buck
- ravined
- ravine deer
Related terms
Translations
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Etymology 2
From Middle English ravene, Lua error in Module:utilities at line 142: attempt to perform arithmetic on local 'h' (a nil value), from Old French raviner (“rush, seize by force”), itself from Lua error in Module:utilities at line 142: attempt to perform arithmetic on local 'h' (a nil value), from Latin rapīna (“plundering, loot”), itself from rapere (“seize, plunder, abduct”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈɹævɪn/
Audio (Southern England) (file)
Noun
ravine (plural ravines)
- (archaic) Alternative form of raven (“rapine, rapacity; prey, plunder”)
- 1849, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam A.H.H.:
- 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?
Further reading
ravine on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Category:ravines on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons - “ravine”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
French
Etymology
From the Old French verb raviner (“flow with force; sweep down; pillage, cascade”), or from the noun Lua error in Module:utilities at line 142: attempt to perform arithmetic on local 'h' (a nil value), from Latin rapīna. Doublet of rapine, a borrowing from the same Latin term.
Noun
ravine f (plural ravines)
Related terms
Verb
ravine
- inflection of raviner:
- first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
- second-person singular imperative
Further reading
- “ravine”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Norwegian Bokmål
Etymology
From Lua error in Module:utilities at line 142: attempt to perform arithmetic on local 'h' (a nil value), from Latin rapīna.
Norwegian Nynorsk
Etymology
From Lua error in Module:utilities at line 142: attempt to perform arithmetic on local 'h' (a nil value), from Latin rapīna.
Noun
ravine m (definite singular ravinen, indefinite plural ravinar, definite plural ravinane)
- gully (type of ravine)
References
- “ravine” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.