ˈice-stream
1. A stream of ice-floes carried by the wind or a permanent current in a particular course. Chiefly applied to that which sweeps round Cape Farewell at the southern extremity of Greenland.
| 1878 Nares Voy. Polar Sea I. 8, I found that we had run deeper into the ice-stream than I had intended. |
2. A term applied to a valley glacier in reference to its river-like course, and continuous downward movement.
| 1853 Kane Grinnell Exp. xviii. (1856) 138 Contributions from the ice-streams of several minor valleys. 1871 L. Stephen Playgr. Europe iii. (1894) 71 In the whole Alps there is no ice-stream to be compared to the noble Aletsch glacier. |