DCHP-1 Online

shove ((n.))

• 1 n. See quote.

  • 1829  Sometimes the soil on the breasts of the hill will shove down with all its trees to the plains below. The spots where these shoves have taken place, are plainly seen from the river, and have a singular appearance

• 2a n. Hist. the annual thrusting forward and expansion of river ice during break-up, with special reference to the St. Lawrence River, where the phenomenon was accompanied with much flooding and considerable danger.

  See also: ice-shove (def. 2)  shoving of the ice   

  • 1837  It will be remembered that during the unprecedented "shove" in the spring of 1836, this tree withstood a tremendous pressure, and its upper branches were filled with immense masses of ice.
  • 1955  The "shove" menaced anyone still trying to cross the St. Lawrence on the ice-roads, and year by year there would be rescues or casualties.

• 2b n. a thrusting forward of river ice under pressure, an action causing ridges on the ice surface and the building up of masses of ice on the shores.

  See also: bourdigneau  ice-shove (def. 2)  

  • 1842  Sleighs were crossing as early as the 23d instant, a little below Longueuil, and on that day the ice in that quarter made a "shove" for some distance, although fortunately no person was then on the ice.
  • 1898  Before the revetment wall was constructed these shoves drove the ice-fields up the sloping beach to such a height beyond top bank that they broke by their own weight and piled a rampart of ice thirty feet high in front of the buildings they could not reach and out of which the terrified inmates escaped (in this ice) by the third story windows.