BOULDER

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

I. (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A town in north central Colorado; Rocky Mountains resort center and university town

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Instance hypernyms:

town (an urban area with a fixed boundary that is smaller than a city)

Holonyms ("Boulder" is a part of...):

Centennial State; CO; Colo.; Colorado (a state in west central United States in the Rocky Mountains)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A large smooth mass of rock detached from its place of origin

Synonyms:

boulder; bowlder

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Hypernyms ("boulder" is a kind of...):

rock; stone (a lump or mass of hard consolidated mineral matter)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "boulder"):

glacial boulder (a boulder that has been carried by a glacier to a place far distant from its place of origin)

river boulder (a boulder that has been carried by a river to a place remote from its place of origin)

shore boulder (a boulder found on a shore remote from its place of origin)

Instance hyponyms:

Plymouth Rock (a boulder in Plymouth supposed to be where the Pilgrims disembarked from the Mayflower)

Derivation:

bouldery (abounding in rocks or stones)

Credits

Context examples:

A long, sloping hillside, dotted with grey limestone boulders, stretched behind us.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

From the top of this boulder the gleam of something bright caught my eye, and, raising my hand, I found that it came from the silver cigarette-case which he used to carry.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"There is a speed limit in the study that shows that an ice shelf can't collapse ridiculously fast," said co-author Alison Banwell, a glaciology researcher at the University of Colorado Boulder.

(Reframing the dangers Antarctica's meltwater ponds pose to ice shelves and sea level, National Science Foundation)

The man who followed slipped on a smooth boulder, nearly fell, but recovered himself with a violent effort, at the same time uttering a sharp exclamation of pain.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

He had found a wonderful spot, a sort of natural hollow in a rock, with an entrance like a doorway between two boulders.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

This happens because impacts excavate lunar boulders that are ground into soil over tens to hundreds of millions of years by a constant rain of tiny meteorites.

(Moon Data Sheds Light on Earth’s Asteroid Impact History, NASA)

Not so, say scientists Noah Fierer and Tess Brewer of the University of Colorado Boulder.

(Tales from the crypt: Life after death in a graveyard, National Science Foundation)

A new study from University of Colorado Boulder shows these excess emissions alone lead to 38,000 premature deaths annually worldwide.

(Diesel Pollutes More Than Lab Tests Detect, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

It is possible that as pressure builds in cracks and pores in boulders where absorbed water is released, the surface could become agitated, causing particles to erupt.

(NASA's OSIRIS-REx Explains Bennu Mystery Particles, NASA)

The scientists at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, modeled collisions of other bodies with Ceres since the dwarf planet formed, and predicted the number of large craters that should have been present on its surface.