different between furrow vs crevasse

English

Etymology

From Middle English furgh, forow, from Old English furh, from Proto-West Germanic *furh, from Proto-Germanic *furhs (compare Saterland Frisian Fuurge, Dutch voor, German Furche, Swedish fåra, Norwegian Bokmål fure), from Proto-Indo-European *per?- (“to dig”).

Compare Welsh rhych (“furrow”), Latin porca (“ridge, balk”), Lithuanian prapar?šas (“ditch”), Sanskrit ?????? (pár??na, “chasm”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?f??o?/, /?f?o?/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?f????/
• (accents without the "Hurry-furry" merger)
• (accents with the "Hurry-furry" merger)
• Rhymes: -????

Noun

furrow (plural furrows)

1. A trench cut in the soil, as when plowed in order to plant a crop.

   Don't walk across that deep furrow in the field.

2. Any trench, channel, or groove, as in wood or metal.
3. A deep wrinkle in the skin of the face, especially on the forehead.

   When she was tired, a deep furrow appeared on her forehead.

Derived terms

• furrowless
• furrowlike
• furrowy

Translations

Verb

furrow (third-person singular simple present furrows, present participle furrowing, simple past and past participle furrowed)

1. (transitive) To cut one or more grooves in (the ground, etc.).
2. (transitive) To wrinkle.
3. (transitive) To pull one's brows or eyebrows together due to concentration, worry, etc.

   Synonym: frown

Derived terms

• furrower
• furrowing
• unfurrow
• unfurrowed

Translations

See also

• plough a lonely furrow

English

Etymology

From French crevasse. Doublet of crevice.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -æs
• IPA^(key): /k???væs/

Noun

crevasse (plural crevasses)

1. A crack or fissure in a glacier or snowfield; a chasm.
2. (US) A breach in a canal or river bank.
3. (by extension) Any cleft or fissure.
   • 2010, Scott R. Riley, A Lost Hero Found (page 111)

     I moved my left hand to the small of her back, just above her belt-line and stroked the peach fuzz in her crevasse with my fingers.

4. (figuratively) A discontinuity or “gap” between the accounted variables and an observed outcome.
   • 1954: Gilbert Ryle, Dilemmas: The Tarner Lectures, 1953, dilemma vii: Perception, page 105 (The Syndics of the Cambridge University Press)

     […] he laments that he can find no physiological phenomenon answering to his subject’s winning a race, or losing it. Between his terminal output of energy and his victory or defeat there is a mysterious crevasse. Physiology is baffled.

Translations

Verb

crevasse (third-person singular simple present crevasses, present participle crevassing, simple past and past participle crevassed)

1. (intransitive) To form crevasses.
2. (transitive) To fissure with crevasses.

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k??.vas/
• Rhymes: -as

Etymology 1

Old French crevace, crever +? -asse

Noun

crevasse f (plural crevasses)

1. crevasse

Etymology 2

Inflected forms

Verb

crevasse

1. first-person singular imperfect subjunctive of crever

Further reading

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

Portuguese

Alternative forms

• crevassa (dated)

Noun

crevasse f (plural crevasses)

1. (glaciology) crevasse (a crack or fissure in a glacier or snow field)