pack ice

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noun

a large area of floating ice formed over a period of many years and consisting of pieces of ice driven together by wind, current, etc.

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Also called ice pack.

Origin of pack ice

First recorded in 1840–50

Words nearby pack ice

packet, packet switched system, packet switching, packframe, packhorse, pack ice, pack in, packing, packing box, packing case, packing density

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use pack ice in a sentence

Instead, the large chunks—the biggest of which are comparable in size to the area of Alaska—look like they’re jostling together, bumping and sliding against each other like pack ice in the Arctic Ocean.
Jostling in Venus’ crust could reveal clues about Earth’s early geology|Monroe Hammond|June 25, 2021|Popular-Science
These blocks, each about the size of Alaska, seem to have been sluggishly jostling against each other like broken pack ice on a pond or lake.
Scientists might have spotted tectonic activity inside Venus|Neel V. Patel|June 21, 2021|MIT Technology Review
His groundbreaking interventions aboard the Belgica, a Belgian ship stuck fast in the pack ice for more than a year, saved many lives and prefigured established medical science by several decades.
The Antarctic Expedition That Changed Modern Medicine|Julian Sancton|May 12, 2021|Time
Field ice is a term usually applied to frozen sea water floating in much looser form than pack ice.
Loss of the Steamship 'Titanic'|British Government

To the north, pack-ice in variable amount is encountered before reaching the wide open ocean.
The Home of the Blizzard|Douglas Mawson
Towards evening the 'Aurora' turned back to open water and cruised along the pack-ice.
The Home of the Blizzard|Douglas Mawson
When the high wind blew off shore, there was no backswell, on account of the pack-ice to the north quelling the sea.
The Home of the Blizzard|Douglas Mawson
The north appeared to be filled with frozen sea though we could not be certain that it was not dense pack-ice.
The Home of the Blizzard|Douglas Mawson

British Dictionary definitions for pack ice

pack ice

noun

a large area of floating ice, usually occurring in polar seas, consisting of separate pieces that have become massed togetherAlso called: ice pack

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for pack ice

pack ice

[ păk ]

The floating sea-ice cover of the polar regions. Driven by winds and ocean currents, pack ice is a mixture of ice fragments of varying size and age that are squeezed together and cover the sea surface with little or no open water. At maximum expansion during the winter, pack ice covers about five percent of Arctic waters and about eight percent of Antarctic waters.

pack ice

Origin of pack ice

Words nearby pack ice

Words related to pack ice

How to use pack ice in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for pack ice

Scientific definitions for pack ice