AVALANCHE

I. noun Etymology: French, from French dialect (Franco-Provençal) lavantse, avalantse Date: 1771 a large mass of snow, ice, earth, rock, or other material in swift motion down a mountainside or over a precipice, a sudden great or overwhelming rush or accumulation of something , a cumulative process in which photons or accelerated charge carriers produce additional photons or charge carriers through collisions (as with gas molecules), II. verb (-lanched; -lanching) Date: 1855 intransitive verb to descend in an ~, transitive verb overwhelm , flood