iceberg

plural icebergs

1. obsoleteThe seaward end of a glacier.First known use 1774–19th c.
2. A huge mass of ocean-floating ice which has broken off a glacier or ice shelfFirst known use 1820

   The Titanic hit an iceberg and sank.

   3 more examples

   Clissold the excellent cook, who should have gone with the motor party, tumbled off a small iceberg and concussed himself while posing or 'ponting' as it had come to be known- Griffith Taylor, with his usual wit, had defined 'to pont' as 'to spend a deuce of a time posing in an uncomfortable position'.

   1997, Preston, Diana, Preston, Diana A first rate tragedy Constable, London: 160

   The passengers still on board were keen to watch as Tessa's crew scrambled for their positions, and she heard jokes about icebergs and devil's triangles, and anxious childish queries answered by soothing adult tones.

   2000, Michelle Jerott, A Great Catch, Avon Books, →ISBN

   And although the iceberg appears to be maintaining its structure for now, in recent decades large icebergs that have taken this route “soon break up, disperse and melt,” said Meijers.

   2025 March 4, Jack Guy, “World’s biggest iceberg runs aground off South Georgia”, in CNN, archived from the original on 06 Apr 2025

3. USslangAn aloof person.First known use 19th c.
4. figurativelyAn impending disastrous event whose adverse effects are only beginning to show.

   He has little to lose: at present he will go down in history, alongside George W. Bush, as a skipper who ignored the looming fiscal iceberg.

   2013 November 23, “How Barack Obama can get at least some of his credibility back”, in The Economist, archived from the original on 10 Jan 2025

5. InternetfigurativelyslangA topic that is more convoluted and fractal than it may seem.

   Near-synonym: rabbit hole

   2 more examples

   Do some digging into that politician's past life and associates, and you'll see that the iceberg runs deep.

   There's a massive iceberg of increasingly crazy fanfics out there based around those two characters.

   Synonyms: rabbit hole

   1. InternetbroadlyfigurativelyslangA list, infographic, or other enumeration of such a topic and its subcomponents, often ordered into groups sorted by obscurity and bizarreness.

      Today we're gonna talk about the Star Wars iceberg.

      1 more example

      Check out the gaming iceberg on this post! There's some really freaky titles there that I've never heard of.

      Synonyms: rabbit hole