Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Moraine

Moraine , noun

[F. Compare Prov. German mur stones broken off, Italian mora a heap of stones, hillock, German murbe soft, broken up, Old High German muruwi, Anglo-Saxon mearu tender, Greek {not transcribed} to cause to wither, Sanskrit mlā to relax.]

(Geology) An accumulation of earth and stones carried forward and deposited by a glacier. — Lyell

If the moraine is at the extremity of the glacier it is a terminal moraine; if at the side, a lateral moraine; if parallel to the side on the central portion of the glacier, a medial moraine. See Illust. of Glacier. In the last case it is formed by the union of the lateral moraines of the branches of the glacier. A ground moraine is one beneath the mass of ice.