Great Lakes

1. A group of five freshwater lakes of central North America between the United States and Canada, including Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario. The Great Lakes connect Midwestern ports with the Atlantic Ocean via the St. Lawrence Seaway.

2. A group of several large lakes in the vicinity of the Great Rift Valley in eastern Africa. The group is generally considered to include Lakes Victoria, Albert, Edward, Kivu, Tanganyika, and Nyasa.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Great Lakes

pl n

(Placename) a group of five lakes in central North America with connecting waterways: the largest group of lakes in the world: consists of Lakes Superior, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, which are divided by the border between the US and Canada and Lake Michigan, which is wholly in the US; constitutes the most important system of inland waterways in the world, discharging through the St Lawrence into the Atlantic. Total length: 3767 km (2340 miles). Area: 246 490 sq km (95 170 sq miles)

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

Great′ Lakes′

n.pl.

a series of five lakes between the U.S. and Canada, comprising Lakes Erie, Huron, Michigan, Ontario, and Superior; connected with the Atlantic by the St. Lawrence River.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

Great Lakes - a group of five large, interconnected lakes in central North America

Canada - a nation in northern North America; the French were the first Europeans to settle in mainland Canada; "the border between the United States and Canada is the longest unguarded border in the world"

U.S.A., United States, United States of America, US, USA, America, the States, U.S. - North American republic containing 50 states - 48 conterminous states in North America plus Alaska in northwest North America and the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean; achieved independence in 1776

Lake Erie, Erie - the 4th largest of the Great Lakes; it is linked to the Hudson River by the New York State Barge Canal

Huron, Lake Huron - the 2nd largest of the Great Lakes

Lake Michigan, Michigan - the 3rd largest of the Great Lakes; the largest freshwater lake entirely within the United States borders

Lake Ontario, Ontario - the smallest of the Great Lakes

Lake Superior, Superior - the largest freshwater lake in the world; the deepest of the Great Lakes

Translations

Große Seen

Great Lakes

npl
the Great Lakes → les Grands Lacs mpl

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

Great Lakes

npl the Great Lakes → i Grandi Laghi

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

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References in classic literature

From this island the latest expedition, sent by way of the great lakes to explore the sources of the Nile, had just set out.

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This theory assumes that the Great Lakes were the deep pools of one immense body of fresh water, which lay too low to be drained by the irruption that laid bare the land.

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"The waters in the woods, and on the great lakes, run downward until they lie like my hand," said the Indian, stretching the limb horizontally before him, "and then they run no more."

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Every now and then a large body of Ottawas, Hurons, and other tribes who hunted the countries bordering on the great lakes, would come down in a squadron of light canoes, laden with beaver skins, and other spoils of their year's hunting.

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She would have need of them, for she had to cross a high glass mountain, three cutting swords, and a great lake. When she had passed these she would find her lover again.

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We went up the coast some ten or twelve miles in the U-33, tying up to shore near the mouth of a small stream which emptied great volumes of crude oil into the sea--I find it difficult to call this great lake by any other name.

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This is a great lake of salt water, laving the feet of the mountains, but extending far to the west-southwest, into one of those vast and elevated plateaus of land, which range high above the level of the Pacific.

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You must know, sire, that my father was Mahmoud, the king of this country, the Black Isles, so called from the four little mountains which were once islands, while the capital was the place where now the great lake lies.

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So they went on till they came to a great lake; and at the side of the lake there lay twelve little boats with twelve handsome princes in them, who seemed to be waiting there for the princesses.

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When the time comes I will describe that wondrous moonlit night upon the great lake when a young ichthyosaurus--a strange creature, half seal, half fish, to look at, with bone-covered eyes on each side of his snout, and a third eye fixed upon the top of his head--was entangled in an Indian net, and nearly upset our canoe before we towed it ashore; the same night that a green water-snake shot out from the rushes and carried off in its coils the steersman of Challenger's canoe.

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His ways are not their ways, and so Tarzan is going back to the lair of his own kind by the waters of the great lake which has no farther shore.

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Out of the north, across the full sweep of the great lake, blew an unending snow gale.

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