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CHASM
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A deep opening in the earth's surface
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)
Hypernyms ("chasm" is a kind of...):
gap; opening (an open or empty space in or between things)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "chasm"):
abysm; abyss (a bottomless gulf or pit; any unfathomable (or apparently unfathomable) cavity or chasm or void extending below (often used figuratively))
gulf (a deep wide chasm)
Context examples:
The scenes in its neighbourhood, Charmouth, with its high grounds and extensive sweeps of country, and still more, its sweet, retired bay, backed by dark cliffs, where fragments of low rock among the sands, make it the happiest spot for watching the flow of the tide, for sitting in unwearied contemplation; the woody varieties of the cheerful village of Up Lyme; and, above all, Pinny, with its green chasms between romantic rocks, where the scattered forest trees and orchards of luxuriant growth, declare that many a generation must have passed away since the first partial falling of the cliff prepared the ground for such a state, where a scene so wonderful and so lovely is exhibited, as may more than equal any of the resembling scenes of the far-famed Isle of Wight: these places must be visited, and visited again, to make the worth of Lyme understood.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
At the centre of the island there is a chasm about fifty yards in diameter, whence the astronomers descend into a large dome, which is therefore called flandona gagnole, or the astronomer’s cave, situated at the depth of a hundred yards beneath the upper surface of the adamant.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
The tree was a good sixty feet in height, and if it only fell the right way it would easily cross the chasm.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
“Well, you’re not a spirit anyhow,” said I. “My dear chap, I’m overjoyed to see you. Sit down, and tell me how you came alive out of that dreadful chasm.”
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The shaft into which the river hurls itself is an immense chasm, lined by glistening coal-black rock, and narrowing into a creaming, boiling pit of incalculable depth, which brims over and shoots the stream onward over its jagged lip.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I have an inward treasure born with me, which can keep me alive if all extraneous delights should be withheld, or offered only at a price I cannot afford to give.' The forehead declares, 'Reason sits firm and holds the reins, and she will not let the feelings burst away and hurry her to wild chasms.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Mr. Bertram set off for—, and Miss Crawford was prepared to find a great chasm in their society, and to miss him decidedly in the meetings which were now becoming almost daily between the families; and on their all dining together at the Park soon after his going, she retook her chosen place near the bottom of the table, fully expecting to feel a most melancholy difference in the change of masters.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
There were twenty Indians from the river, with stakes, ropes, and all that could be useful for bridging the chasm.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Well, then, about that chasm.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
We withdrew hurriedly from the chasm, our minds full of this new development and its bearing upon our plans.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
