An accumulation of ice in a river.
1862. [League] Island is below the bend in the Delaware, and hence mainly out of danger from ice gorges.—Mr. James W. Grimes of Iowa, U.S. Senate, June 24: Cong. Globe, p. 2896/1.
1884. The accident has not been unfrequently seen that an ice-gorge forming in the river in the spring, and coming on with resistless force, has smashed and crunched whole fleets of them [boats] into shapeless ruin.—W. H. Bishop, ‘St. Louis,’ Harper’s Mag., lxviii. p. 514/2 (March). (N.E.D.)
