Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A sharp ridge with steeply sloping sides, produced by erosion of the broken edges of highly tilted strata.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Resembling a hog's back in form: used specifically in describing a small locomotive which is very low in build and has no cab.
- noun A back like that of a hog; a back which rises in the middle.
- noun A fish in which the back is humped some-what like a hog′ s.
- noun A low, sharply crested ridge rising upon the adjacent region, and usually formed of sand or gravel with boulders intermixed: in New England more commonly called
horseback . Compare horseback, eskar, kame. - noun In coal-mining, a sharp rise in the floor of a coal-seam.
- noun A hog-frame.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Arch.) An upward curve or very obtuse angle in the upper surface of any member, as of a timber laid horizontally; -- the opposite of
camber . - noun (Naut.) See
Hogframe . - noun (Geol.) A ridge formed by tilted strata; hence, any ridge with a sharp summit, and steeply sloping sides.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun geology A sharp steep-sided
ridge formed by theerosion of tiltingstrata - noun A
hogframe - noun A
Viking grave marker
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a narrow ridge of hills
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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The valley lies between a high wall of red sandstone and the "hogback," -- that is what the foothills are called.
Letters on an Elk Hunt Elinore Pruitt Stewart
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A "hogback," be it understood, is a rugged rocky mound, carved by weather erosion.
The Free Range Francis William Sullivan 1925
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The way led at first up the narrow spine of a "hogback," but soon widened into one of the ample and spacious parks peculiar to the elevations near the summits of the First Rampart.
The Rules of the Game Stewart Edward White 1909
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Professor L.kes, accompanied by his friend Mr. E.L. Beckwith, an engineer, was, one day in March, 1877, hunting along the "hogback" in the vicinity of Morrison, Colorado, for fossil leaves in the Dakota
Dinosaurs With Special Reference to the American Museum Collections William Diller Matthew 1900
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The roads led between "hogback" hills, as they are called.
The end of an era, 1899
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A long spur, with broken ledges of rock, puts down to the river, and along its course, or up the "hogback," as it is called, I make the ascent.
Canyons of the Colorado John Wesley Powell 1868
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"hogback" in the snow, running a curving parallel with the plain.
The Golden Snare James Oliver Curwood 1903
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It reappeared along a ridge half a mile distant, on a hogback near the north boundary.
Bird Cloud Annie Proulx 2011
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The last pack, from Long Lake to Linderman, was three miles, and the trail, if trail it could be called, rose up over a thousand-foot hogback, dropped down a scramble of slippery rocks, and crossed a wide stretch of swamp.
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It reappeared along a ridge half a mile distant, on a hogback near the north boundary.
Bird Cloud Annie Proulx 2011
qms commented on the word hogback
The pig has something the dog lacks -
It stimulates our analogue knacks.
The tail we compare
To a queue in the hair
And hills can be shaped like hogbacks.
Until today I had given very little attention to porcine matters. Having been compelled to do so I am now impressed with the extent of the lexicon spawned in the piggery:
The words for the pig quite abound.
It's swine, sow or boar - they astound!
It's pork if it's food
(Or ham, to be rude),
And a hogback's a hump in the ground.
A piggyback is a ride on a friend
But call him a swine and you offend.
Call a cop a pig
And go to the brig
And ham is an actor who can't pretend.
June 2, 2014