Rocky Mountains

also Rock·ies (rŏk′ēz)

A major mountain system of western North America extending about 3,200 km (2,000 mi) from northern British Columbia to central New Mexico and rising to 4,399 m (14,433 ft) at Mount Elbert in central Colorado. The system includes numerous ranges and forms the Continental Divide. The Rocky Mountain Trench runs along the western side of the mountains in British Columbia, Canada.

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.

Rocky Mountains

Rockies

pl n

(Placename) the chief mountain system of W North America, extending from British Columbia to New Mexico: forms the Continental Divide. Highest peak: Mount Elbert, 4399 m (14 431 ft). Mount McKinley (6194 m (20 320 ft)), in the Alaska Range, is not strictly part of the Rocky Mountains

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

Rock′y Moun′tains

n.pl.

a mountain system in W North America, extending NW from central New Mexico through W Canada to N Alaska. Highest peak in U.S., Mount Elbert, 14,43l ft. (4399 m); highest peak in Canada, Mount Robson, 12,972 ft. (3954 m). Also called Rockies.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

Rocky Mountains - the chief mountain range of western North America; extends from British Columbia to northern New Mexico; forms the continental divide

Rockies

Mount Elbert - the highest peak in the Rocky Mountains in central Colorado (14,431 feet high)

North America - a continent (the third largest) in the western hemisphere connected to South America by the Isthmus of Panama

Pike's Peak - a mountain peak in the Rockies in central Colorado (14,109 feet high)

San Juan Mountains - a mountain range in southwestern Colorado that is part of the Rocky Mountains

Selkirk Mountains - a range of the Rocky Mountains in southeastern British Columbia

Wheeler Peak - a mountain peak in northeastern New Mexico in the Rocky Mountains

Translations

Skalisté hory

Rocky Mountains

Montagnes Rocheuses

Rocky Mountains

Góry Skaliste

Скалистые горы

Rocky Mountains

pl the Rocky Mountains → die Rocky Mountains pl

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

Rocky Mountains

npl the Rocky Mountains → le Montagne Rocciose

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

State of the fur trade of the Rocky Mountains American enterprises General Ashley and his associates Sublette, a famous leader Yearly rendezvous among the mountains Stratagems and dangers of the trade Bands of trappers Indian banditti Crows and Blackfeet Mountaineers Traders of the Far West Character and habits of the trapper

Astor abandoned all thoughts of regaining Astoria, and made no further attempt to extend his enterprises beyond the Rocky Mountains; and the Northwest Company considered themselves the lords of the country.

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The geological formation of that portion of the American Union, which lies between the Alleghanies and the Rocky Mountains, has given rise to many ingenious theories.

The same is true between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific.

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It was in the section included between this range and the Rocky Mountains that the American engineers found the most formidable difficulties in laying the road, and that the government granted a subsidy of forty-eight thousand dollars per mile, instead of sixteen thousand allowed for the work done on the plains.

At eleven in the morning the train had reached the dividing ridge of the waters at Bridger Pass, seven thousand five hundred and twenty-four feet above the level of the sea, one of the highest points attained by the track in crossing the Rocky Mountains. After going about two hundred miles, the travellers at last found themselves on one of those vast plains which extend to the Atlantic, and which nature has made so propitious for laying the iron road.

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On the west, however, rise the Rocky Mountains, that immense range which, commencing at the Straights of Magellan, follows the western coast of Southern America under the name of the Andes or the Cordilleras, until it crosses the Isthmus of Panama, and runs up the whole of North America to the very borders of the Polar Sea.

But the telescope of the Rocky Mountains, before doing its duty to the Gun Club, rendered immense services to astronomy.

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This led him to advert to a great enterprise set on foot and conducted by him, between twenty and thirty years since, having for its object to carry the fur trade across the Rocky Mountains, and to sweep the shores of the Pacific.

Among them were journals and letters narrating expeditions by sea, and journeys to and fro across the Rocky Mountains by routes before untravelled, together with documents illustrative of savage and colonial life on the borders of the Pacific.

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Maston, Long's Peak, Rocky Mountains; and the fourth to the sub-director of the Cambridge Observatory, Massachusetts.

We may remember that the secretary of the Gun Club had started soon after the projectile (and almost as quickly) for the station on Long's Peak, in the Rocky Mountains, J.

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