DCHP-1 Online

breaking-up

• 1 n. the melting of the snow and the frozen ground in spring; spring thaw.

  See also: break-up (def. 2)  

  • 1701  (1929)  I was desirous to winter at Slude river but . . . none is acquainted wth ye breaking up so it is deferr'd till next year. . . .
  • 1925  ... when the spring "breaking-up" really began, the country became a series of islands.

• 2 n. the spring thawing of the ice on rivers and lakes, especially the point in time when the ice breaks into pieces that are flushed away by the current.

  See also: break-up (def. 1)  

  • 1743  (1949)  I[']ll be in at the Breaking up of the Rivers.
  • 1946  (1947)  . . . the breaking up . . . comes about this time every year.