Glā'çier, n.

(glā'seer, or glăs'ĭ-er), n. [Fr. glacier, from Lat. glacies, ice.] A field or immense mass of ice, or snow and ice, formed in the region of perpetual snow, and moving slowly down mountain slopes or valleys. It usually bears along bowlders and fragments of rock, arranged in lines parallel with the sides, and called moraines.

Glacier theory (Geol.), the theory that large parts of the frigid and temperate zones were covered with ice during the glacial or ice period, and that, by the agency of this ice, the loose materials on the earth's surface, called drift, or diluvium, were transported and accumulated.