icebreaker

English

Wikipedia

An icebreaker (ship).

Alternative forms

• ice breaker
• ice-breaker

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA: /ˈaɪsˌbreɪkər/

Noun

icebreaker (plural icebreakers)

1. A ship designed to break through ice so that it, or other ships coming behind, can navigate on frozen seas.

   The steel hulls of ice-breakers are much thicker than those of standard vessels.

   • 2005, Martin Torgoff, Can't Find My Way Home, Simon & Schuster, published 2005, page 11:

     My father's Bonneville was cutting its way toward us like an icebreaker moving through my whole state of consciousness.

2. A game, activity, humorous anecdote, etc., designed to relax a group of people to help them get to know each other.

   The new college hallmates were awkward with each other at first, but after a game of charades as an icebreaker, they were laughing like old friends.

Related terms

• break the ice

Translations

ship designed to break through ice

• Arabic: كسارة جليد (ar) (kassaarat jaliid) f
• Belarusian: ледакол (be) (ledakól) m
• Catalan: trencaglaç (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 破冰船 (cmn) (pòbīngchuán)

• Czech: ledoborec (cs) m
• Danish: isbryder (da) c
• Dutch: ijsbreker (nl) m
• Esperanto: glacirompilo (eo)
• Estonian: jäälõhkuja (et)
• Finnish: jäänmurtaja (fi)
• French: brise-glace (fr) m
• Galician: crebaxeos (gl) m
• German: Eisbrecher (de) m
• Greek: παγοθραύστης (el) (pagothráfstis) m, παγοθραυστικό (el) (pagothrafstikó) n, παγοθραυστικό πλοίο (el) (pagothrafstikó plío) n
• Hebrew: שוברת קרח (he)
• Italian: rompighiaccio (it) m
• Japanese: 砕氷船 (ja) (さいひょうせん, saihyōsen)
• Korean: 쇄빙선 (ko) (swaebingseon) (碎氷船 (ko))

• Latvian: ledlauzis (lv)
• Lithuanian: ledlaužis (lt)
• Luxembourgish: Äisbriecher (lb) m
• Macedonian: мразокршач (mk) (mrazok'ršač) m
• Malay: kapal pemecah air batu (ms)
• Norwegian: isbryter (no)
• Polish: lodołamacz (pl) m
• Portuguese: quebra-gelo (pt) m
• Russian: ледокол (ru) (ledokól) m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ледоломац (sh) m

  Roman: ledolomac (sh) m

• Slovak: ľadoborec (sk) m
• Slovene: ledolomilec (sl) m
• Spanish: rompehielos (es) m
• Swedish: isbrytare (sv) c
• Turkish: buzkıran (tr)
• Ukrainian: криголам (uk) (kryholám) m
• Vietnamese: tàu phá băng (vi)

game, anecdote, or other activity to help introduce people

• Finnish: kevennys (fi)

• Swedish: isbrytare (sv) c