canyon - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Motlatse canyon in South Africa (1)

Borrowed from Spanish cañón. Doublet of cannon.

canyon (plural canyons)

  1. A valley, especially a long, narrow, steep valley, cut in rock by a river.
    Synonyms: gorge, dale, dalles, gulch, ravine, vale, valley; see also Thesaurus:valley
    • 1961 October, Voyageur, “The Cockermouth, Keswick & Penrith Railway”, in Trains Illustrated, page 601:
      After we have crossed the Glenderamackin stream, which drains the northern slopes of Saddleback, and the latter has united with the St. John's Beck to form the Greta, however, we see ahead the miniature canyon the Greta has hollowed out for itself, and into the depth of which the train now descends.
    • 2012, John Branch, “Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek”, in New York Times‎[1]:
      Snow filled her mouth. She caromed off things she never saw, tumbling through a cluttered canyon like a steel marble falling through pins in a pachinko machine.

a valley cut in rock by a river

canyon (third-person singular simple present canyons, present participle canyoning, simple past and past participle canyoned)

  1. (intransitive) Of water, liquid, or another substance, to flow in or into a canyon.

Borrowed from Spanish cañón.

canyon m (plural canyons)

  1. canyon