Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A crevice; a chink; a widened joint in rock.
  • noun A ravine on the side of a hill.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun chiefly UK A deep cleft formed in limestone surfaces due to water erosion; providing a unique habitat for plants

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Origin unknown.

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Examples

  • He climbed over the sedge and eely oarweeds and sat on a stool of rock, resting his ashplant in a grike.

    Ulysses 2003

  • He climbed over the sedge and eely oarweeds and sat on a stool of rock, resting his ashplant in a grike.

    Ulysses James Joyce 1911

Comments

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  • He climbed over the sedge and eely oarweeds and sat on a stool of rock, resting his ashplant in a grike.

    Joyce, Ulysses, 3

    December 30, 2006

  • Crack or slit in rock or stone.

    May 16, 2008

  • A typical feature of karst topography:

    Grikes are cracks formed when an exposed area of limestone rock is eroded in a particular fashion. Small fissures occur in a limestone bed, which are worn away and widened by rainwater, which dissolves limestone. These fissures reach widths of tens of centimetres, leaving raised beds (clints) of uneroded limestone between extensive networks of cracks. This characteristic pattern is known as clint-and-grike topography.

    Technically a grike can reach gigantic size, but the word is most often used to refer to smaller fissures, with larger ones being called bogaz or zanjones.

    December 8, 2008