glacial

comparative more glacial · superlative most glacial

1. Of, or relating to glaciers.

   We examined the glacial deposits.

   2 more examples

   Wang Shijin is a glacier expert and director of the Yulong Snow Mountain Glacial and Environmental Observation Research Station.

   Users can see how a glacier at the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania retreated between December 1986 and 2020, as well as glacial melt in Sermersooq, Greenland, between December 2000 and 2020.

   2022 April 22, Toyin Owoseje, “Google marks Earth Day with doodle showing stark impacts of the climate crisis”, in CNN, archived from the original on 17 May 2022

2. figurativelyVery slow.

   By all means move at a glacial pace. You know how that thrills me.

   2006, Aline Brosh McKenna, Lauren Weisberger, The Devil Wears Prada, spoken by Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep)

   5 more examples

   He could remember a day that he had spent the whole of (he couldn't have been more than ten) running one of the great, creaking freight elevators at a glacial speed, answering the calls of the bell—one ring, five rings, three rings—with an almost unbearable sense of responsibility.

   1917, Everybody's Magazine - Volume 37, Issue 2, Ridgeway Company, page 56

   I understand that you commented that the Japanese are moving at glacial speed. This is not the only area where they are moving at glacial speed. They are moving at glacial speed in terms of trade barriers, and it is one thing that the American people recognize.

   1953, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Armed Services, Defense Department Authorization and Oversight, U.S. Government Printing Office, page 1251

   Paradoxically, then, the electronic speed offered by computer-based decision-making is often overwhelmed by the glacial speed of data reformatting and checking.

   1999, Michael Goodchild, Max J. Egenhofer, Robin Fegeas, Cliff Kottman, Interoperating Geographic Information Systems, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 133

   Progress on judicial reform has been glacial, meeting enormous resistance.

   2010 October 16, “Under the volcano”, in The Economist

   Lower-level people added front-line information that ordinarily wouldn't have made it up the hierarchy to the executive committee (or would have made it at glacial speed).

   2014, John P. Kotter, Accelerate: Building Strategic Agility for a Faster-Moving World, Harvard Business Review Press, →ISBN, page 96

3. Cold and icy.

   After the rain and frost, the pavements were glacial.

4. Having the appearance of ice.

   On cold days, glacial acetic acid will freeze in the bottle.

5. figurativelyCool and unfriendly.

   He gave me a glacial stare.

plural glacials

1. A glacial period (colloquially known as an ice age).

   Synonyms: ice age

1. geographyOf the Pleistocene period dominated by the presence of glaciers.