ˈglāshə(r) sometimes -āzhə- or -āshēə-, Brit usually ˈglasiə(r or -asyə- noun
( -s )
Etymology: French dialect (Savoy), from Middle French dialect (Savoy, Vaud, Valais), from Middle French glace ice, from Late Latin glacia, alteration of Latin glacies; akin to Latin gelu frost — more at cold
: a large body of ice moving slowly down a slope or valley or spreading outward on a land surface and usually carrying, pushing, or depositing loose rock and other debris and eroding land forms and having a perennial snowfield on which falling snow is converted to a granular icy mass which through the pressure of successive snowfalls and through the freezing of seasonal meltwater becomes solid ice and flows plastically downward to form the body of the glacier which grows or shrinks according to whether snowfalls exceeds the rate of melting or not