ravine
nounUK /ɹəˈviːn/ · US /ɹəˈvin/
Etymology Borrowed from French ravin (“a gully”), from Old French raviner (“to pillage, sweep down, cascade”), from ravine (“robbery, rapine; violent rush of water, waterfall, avalanche; impetuosity, spirit”), from Latin rapīna (cf. rapine).
1
A deep narrow valley or gorge in the earth's surface worn by running water.
- Sometimes the earth stretched up towards them with peaks of mountains, sometimes it fell away in steep ravines, blue rivers sang to them as they passed above them, or very faintly came the song of breezes in lone orchards, and far away the sea sang mighty dirges of old forsaken isles.1905, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], The Gods of Pegāna, London: [Charles] Elkin Mathews, […], →OCLC, page 46:
- He fell into a reverie, a most dangerous state of mind for a chauffeur, since a fall into reverie on the part of a driver may mean a fall into a ravine on the part of the machine.1913, Robert Barr, chapter 3, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad:
1 more example
- Thirty feet below her, where the Persians were crashing through the brush, the streambed kinked to the left side of the ravine and ran under an enormous thorn tree with a thick base.2007 April 1, Thomas Harlan, The Shadow of Ararat: Book One of 'The Oath of Empire', page 294:
- Derived terms
- ravine-buck, ravined, ravine deer, ravinelike, ravine salamander, ravinous, raviny
- Related terms
- ravinement, canyon, gorge, gulley, gully, valley