Meaning & use
calve
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To give birth to a calf, said especially of cows, or, of a glacier or iceberg, to break apart and shed a mass of ice.
See it in a sentence
The dairy herd typically calves in early spring.
Scientists filmed the massive iceberg as it began to calve into the sea.
A note on using this word
The glacial sense is a striking metaphorical extension of the animal-birth meaning, describing ice 'giving birth' to icebergs.
Words with a similar meaning
give birthbreak off
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