[a. mod.F. crevasse = OF. crevace CREVICE. This F. form has been adopted by Alpine climbers in Switzerland in sense 1, and in U.S. from the French of Louisiana, etc., in sense 2; these being too large for the notion associated with the corresponding Eng. form crevice.]
1. A fissure or chasm in the ice of a glacier, usually of great depth, and sometimes of great width.
1823. F. Clissold, Ascent Mt. Blanc, 12. The crevasses are supposed to be, in some places, several hundred feet deep.
1872. C. King, Mountain. Sierra Nev., xi. 231. A glacier, riven with deep crevasses, yawning fifty or sixty feet wide.
b. transf. Any similar deep crack or chasm.
1859. R. F. Burton, Centr. Afr., in Jrnl. Geog. Soc., XXIX. 213. The broad open prospect of this vast crevasse.
1863. Dicey, Federal St., I. 20. The struggles of the floundering horses to drag the carriages out of the ruts and crevasses were really painful to witness.
2. U.S. A breach in the bank of a river, canal, etc.; used esp. of a breach in the levée or artificial bank of the lower Mississippi.
1815. Intelligencer (Lancaster, PA), 8 July, 3/2. The suction in the river, near the crevasse, is so irresistable, that it carries with it every boat which comes within its influence.
1819. Edin. Rev., XXXII. 240. A breach in the levée, or a crevasse, as it is termed, is the greatest calamity which can befal the landholder.
1850. B. Taylor, Eldorado, I. i. 7. The crevasse, by which half the city had lately been submerged, was closed.
