Dictionary

bergy en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /bɜːɡi/ non-rhotic
• /bɜɹɡi/ rhotic

Etymology

From berg + -y.

Meanings

1. (colloquial) Containing icebergs.
   • This is a natural history of the Iceberg and of the barren wastes and bergy shores which it passes on its journey from Greenland's west coast down to the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, a journey taking two years or more. 1985, The Marine Observer, volumes 55-56, page 209:
   • It transformed icebergs, magnificent a moment before, into a maze of dangerous mounds lurking in our pathway and justifying the reputation of Melville Bay for being one of the most dreaded spots of the Arctic. We were right in the 'bergiest' section of the bay. 'The Bergy Hole', whalemen call it. 1948, Miriam Look MacMillan, Green Seas and White Ice, page 119:
   • This cruise was not so hazardous as the last, being less in Bergy seas, nor have we been in any so extreme danger, but then as the ships cannot last for ever it becomes daily more uncomfortable on the philosophical principle of the 'Pitcher going 99 times to the well.' 1918, Leonard Huxley, Life and Letters of Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker:
   • In that year, the Greenland ice service, joined to extend the charts to the bergy waters around the southern tip of Greenland. 2026, John Falkingham, Wolfgang Dierking, Andrew Fleming, The State of Knowledge from Operational Ice Service, page 176:
   • After passing through brash ice, growlers, bergy pits^([sic]) and icebergs, Captain Hawkins saw the peaks, ice cap and cliffs of Laurie Island at 13.45 hr. on 27 January at a distance of about 40 miles. 1973, Bulletin, volumes 36-44, page 38:
2. (colloquial) Of or related to icebergs.
   • The intersections of Greenland by its numerous internal waters are, however, difficult of investigation from the fiords, *sounds, and other entrances being blocked up by the bergy ice, which obstructs the passage of such field, or packed ice, as descends from the internal waters; for it may be received as an axiom, that, in extensive seas, there is the readiest solution of ice. 1818, Bernard O'Reilly, Greenland, the Adjacent Seas, and the North-west Passage:
   • They are to stretch over to the Bergy ground, of dismal associations, and to look for ice-cracks in the level channel way. 1861, Elisha Kent Kane, Arctic Explorations, page 308:
   • She is protected from any danger in that direction by a considerable bergy mass of ice, which seems to be grounded and partially kept from going adrift by our Providence Berg. 1876, Charles H. Davis, Narrative of the North Polar Expeditions U. S. Ship Polaris, page 266:
   • In summer, bergs produce a high-pitched hissing sound called "bergy seltzer," due to the release of high-pressure air bubbles from the ice as it melts in the warmer water. 2007, Beau Riffenburgh, Encyclopedia of the Antarctic, volume 1, page 524:

Forms

Deriveds

bergy bit

Synonyms

icebergy · icebergy