Green River

proper noun

The name of many rivers, mostly in the United States, but also in Canada and South Africa.

Meanings

proper noun
  1. The name of many rivers, mostly in the United States, but also in Canada and South Africa.
    1. A tributary of the Colorado River which flows through the U.S. states of Wyoming, Utah and Colorado.

      The Green River heads near Fremont’s Peak, in the Wind River Mountains.

      1895, J[ohn] W[esley] Powell, chapter I, in Canyons of the Colorado, Meadville, PA: Flood & Vincent; republished as The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons, New York: Dover, 1961, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 17
      2 more examples

      If we keep going we will reach the Green River, about ten miles away according to our map, just above its confluence with the Colorado.

      1968, Edward Abbey, “Terra Incognita: Into the Maze”, in Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness, McGraw-Hill; republished New York: Touchstone, 1968, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 259

      The Green River has cut down through the Uinta Mountains in the last few million years, the Wind River through the Owl Creek Mountains, the Laramie River through the Laramie Range.

      1986, John McPhee, Rising from the Plains; reprinted in Annals of the Former World, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998, page 298
  2. A city, the county seat of Sweetwater County, Wyoming, named after the local Green River.

    From the railroad town of Green River, Wyoming, to the mouth of the Grand Canyon in what is now Lake Mead, Powell's first journey took three months.

    1968, Edward Abbey, “Down the River”, in Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness, McGraw-Hill; republished New York: Touchstone, 1968, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 168
    1 more example

    May 24, 1869.—The good people of Green River City turn out to see us start. We raise our little flag, push the boats from shore, and the swift current carries us down.

    1895, J[ohn] W[esley] Powell, chapter V, in Canyons of the Colorado, Meadville, PA: Flood & Vincent; republished as The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons, New York: Dover, 1961, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 119
Cite this entry
APA

Green River. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Green%20River

MLA

“Green River.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Green%20River. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Green River,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Green%20River.

Source: Green River on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.