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Definition: RIVER from A Dictionary of Entomology

Noun. (Middle English, rivere < Old French, riviere, from Latin, riparia = riverbank, seashore, river, Spanish, ribera; Italian, riviera. PL, Rivers.) 1. A naturally occurring freshwater drainage qualitatively larger than a stream. Rivers exhibit aging in sense of newly formed rivers often unconfined; mature rivers confined, often within valleys developed over geological time. 2. Water that flows naturally through a wide channel surrounded by land.

river

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Large body of water that flows down a slope along a channel restricted by adjacent banks and levees . A river starts at a point called its source , and enters a sea or lake at its mouth . Along its length it may be joined by smaller rivers called tributaries ; a river and its tributaries are contained within a drainage basin . The point at which two rivers join is called the confluence . Rivers are formed and moulded over time chiefly by the processes of erosion , and by the transport and deposition of sediment . Rivers are able to work on the landscape through erosion, transport, and deposition. The amount of potential energy available to a river is proportional to its initial height above sea level. A river follows the path of least resistance downhill, and deepens, widens and lengthens its channel by erosion. Up to 95% of a river's potential energy is used to overcome friction. One way of classifying rivers is by their stage of development. An upper course is typified by a narrow…
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Full text Article river

From Philip's Encyclopedia
Large, natural channel containing water that flows downhill under gravity. A river system is a network of connecting channels. It can be divided into tributaries, which collect water and sediment, the main trunk river and the dispersing system at the river's mouth where much of the sediment is…
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Full text Article river

From Word Origins
Etymologically, the term river denotes the ‘banks’ of a river, rather than the water that flows between them. Its distant ancestor is Latin rīpa ‘bank’. From this was derived the adjective rīpārius (source of English riparian ‘of a river- bank’ [19]), whose feminine form came to be used in Vulgar…
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Full text Article river

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
stream of water larger than a brook or creek. Land surfaces are never perfectly flat, and as a result the runoff after precipitation tends to flow downward by the shortest and steepest course in depressions formed by the intersection of slopes. Runoffs of sufficient volume and velocity join to form…
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Full text Article RIVER

From Gaither's Dictionary of Scientific Quotations
American environmentalist and nature writer For the rest of the afternoon, keeping to the shady side, we drift down the splendid river, deeper and deeper and deeper into the fantastic. Desert Solitaire Down the River (p. 205 ) Ballantine Books. New York New York USA . 1968. American naturalist and…
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Full text Article river

From The Chambers Dictionary
a large stream of water flowing over the land; sometimes extended to a strait or inlet; a place for hawking ( archaic ); a stream in general; (also river card ) the fifth community card dealt in some forms of poker. adj of a river or rivers; dwelling or found in or near a river or rivers. [OFr…
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Full text Article river

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Large body of water that flows down a slope along a channel restricted by adjacent banks and levees . A river starts at a point called its source , and enters a sea or lake at its mouth . Along its length it may be joined by smaller rivers called tributaries ; a river and its tributaries are…
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Full text Article RIVERS

From The Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales
Any tract of land that receives more rain than is lost by evaporation, absorbed by vegetation or stored in water-retaining rock must be permeated by a network of watercourses. With its central core producing a rain run-off exceeding 2000 mm of water a year - 10 times that in lowland England - …
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Full text Article rivers

From Environmental History and Global Change: A Dictionary of Environmental History
Rivers are sources of water for domestic, agricultural and industrial use, fisheries, arteries of movement and trade but also obstacles to movement requiring fords, ferries and bridges. Sources of damage and destruction in floods , river regimes vary greatly according to climatic conditions. Most…
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Full text Article River

From A Dictionary of Literary Symbols
As rivers mark territorial boundaries, crossing them is often symbolically important. The literal crossing of the Jordan into the Promised Land by the Israelites has served as the vehicle for many Christian and Jewish spiritual concepts; Christian meanings are seconded by the baptism of Christ in…
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Full text Article Rivers

From Film Quotations: 11,000 Lines Spoken on Screen, Arranged by Subject, and Indexed
see also Seas , Water TOM GRAYSON: “How long have you been navigating the river?” CMDR. ORLANDO JACKSON: “Ever since I took it away from the Indians.” Showboat singer Bing Crosby checks on riverboat master W.C. Fields’ qualifications. Mississippi (1935, Paramount). “Now, for the last time, Miss. …
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