Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A natural hot spring that intermittently ejects a column of water and steam into the air.
- noun Chiefly British A gas-operated hot-water heater.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A gas-burning apparatus attached to a bath for the purpose of heating water for the bath.
- noun A spouting hot spring; a hot spring which projects water, either periodically or irregularly, to some height in the air.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A boiling spring which throws forth at frequent intervals jets of water, mud, etc., driven up by the expansive power of steam.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun planetology, geology, volcanology A
boiling naturalspring which throws forth at frequent intervalsjets of water, mud etc., driven up by the expansive power ofsteam . - noun UK, archaic An
instantaneous , and oftendangerous ,hot water heater using hot steam. - noun South Africa A
domestic water boiler .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a spring that discharges hot water and steam
- verb to overflow like a geyser
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The Golden Circle is located in southwest Iceland and incorporates three main sights: Thingvellir National Park, a site of spectacular natural beauty where Iceland's ancient parliament convened and where the American and Eurasian tectonic plates meet; the high-temperature geothermal area that most people know as Geysir, on account of its best-known hot spring, from which the word "geyser" derives; and the beautiful Gullfoss waterfall.
Alda Sigmundsdottir: The Magic of Iceland's Golden Circle Alda Sigmundsdottir 2011
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The Golden Circle is located in southwest Iceland and incorporates three main sights: Thingvellir National Park, a site of spectacular natural beauty where Iceland's ancient parliament convened and where the American and Eurasian tectonic plates meet; the high-temperature geothermal area that most people know as Geysir, on account of its best-known hot spring, from which the word "geyser" derives; and the beautiful Gullfoss waterfall.
Alda Sigmundsdottir: The Magic of Iceland's Golden Circle Alda Sigmundsdottir 2011
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"Geysir" (from which the English word geyser is derived), erupts every 5-10 minutes
ChessBase News 2009
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Its hissing and spitting natural geyser is located seven kilometers southeast of the former Jalisco hacienda of El Carmen.
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The name geyser comes from Geysir, the name of an erupting spring at Haukadalur, Iceland; that name, in turn, comes from the Icelandic verb gj�sa, \'to gush\ '.
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One of them looked at the sign that labels the geyser and blurted out "it's the Great Geezer!"
Cryptic Cross Words 2010
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I think that a geyser is a good example. jerrym replied to comment from eric
Comfort/Cameron Darwin giveaway -- all hat and no cattle? - The Panda's Thumb 2009
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LA should name geyser resulting from yet another watermain break in the valley after the mayor--"Old Unfaithful"
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Her press releases informed that the geyser was a "temporary public artwork" by Clement Price-Thomas, titled Whilst you're Sleeping.
Art or watermain break? Soho installation floods streets 2007
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Inside the closet behind the geyser was the perfect place for storing our contraband.
frindley commented on the word geyser
It's been proposed that may be the only English word to have been imported from Icelandic. Can anyone think of any others?
April 16, 2010
hernesheir commented on the word geyser
From the United States Geological Survey's Glossary of Glacier Terminology: jökulhlaup - Icelandic word meaning "a glacier outburst flood resulting from the failure of a glacier-ice-dam, glacier-sediment-dam, or from the melting of glacier ice by a volcanic eruption."
April 17, 2010
mollusque commented on the word geyser
How about maedi, a viral disease of sheep.
April 17, 2010
bilby commented on the word geyser
All my sheep are grounded due to volcanic ash cloud :-(
April 17, 2010
milosrdenstvi commented on the word geyser
I was tempted to complain about those two examples, mostly because I've never heard of either of them before. They seem to belong more to a sort of technical jargon than 'proper English'. I mean, everybody knows what a geyser is.
On further thoughts, I decided that writing up a rant wasn't worth it. But there you have it, my rant unranted...
April 19, 2010