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GLACIAL
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I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Extremely cold
Example:
polar weather
Synonyms:
arctic; frigid; gelid; glacial; icy; polar
Classified under:
Similar:
cold (having a low or inadequate temperature or feeling a sensation of coldness or having been made cold by e.g. ice or refrigeration)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Devoid of warmth and cordiality; expressive of unfriendliness or disdain
Example:
wintry smile
Synonyms:
frigid; frosty; frozen; glacial; icy; wintry
Classified under:
Similar:
cold (extended meanings; especially of psychological coldness; without human warmth or emotion)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Relating to or derived from a glacier
Example:
glacial deposit
Classified under:
Relational adjectives (pertainyms)
Pertainym:
glacier (a slowly moving mass of ice)
Derivation:
glaciation (the process of covering the earth with glaciers or masses of ice)
glaciation (the condition of being covered with glaciers or masses of ice; the result of glacial action)
glacier (a slowly moving mass of ice)
Context examples:
Larsen C, a floating platform of glacial ice on the east side of the Antarctic Peninsula, is the fourth largest ice shelf ringing Earth’s southernmost continent.
(Massive Iceberg Breaks Off from Antarctica, NASA)
A new, highly detailed ice core reveals a consistent pattern of climate changes that started in the Arctic and spread across the globe to the Antarctic during planet Earth's last glacial period, tens of thousands of years ago.
(Antarctic ice core reveals how sudden climate changes in North Atlantic moved south, NSF)
The scientific celebrities, forgetting their mollusks and glacial periods, gossiped about art, while devoting themselves to oysters and ices with characteristic energy; the young musician, who was charming the city like a second Orpheus, talked horses; and the specimen of the British nobility present happened to be the most ordinary man of the party.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
The water was only 1 to 2 degrees Fahrenheit (0.5 to 1 degree Celsius) warmer than usual water temperatures in the area, but it increased the glaciers' flow speeds by up to 25 percent and multiplied the rate of glacial ice loss by three to five times — from 7 to 10 feet of thinning per year (2 to 3 meters) up to 33 feet per year (10 meters).
(Wind, Warm Water Revved Up Melting Antarctic Glaciers, NASA)
An abnormal season of intense glacial melt in 2002 triggered multiple distinct changes in the physical and biological characteristics of Antarctica's McMurdo Dry Valleys over the ensuing decade.
(Extreme melt season leads to decade-long ecosystem changes in Antarctica's Dry Valleys, National Science Foundation)
The study’s projections say warming-induced glacial melts will spike dangerously, increasing river flows, between 2050 and 2060, exacerbating the risk of high-altitude glacial lakes overflowing and, consequently, flooding communities.
(Bulk of Himalayan glaciers could vanish by 2100, SciDev.Net)
