Canadian Shield Definition & Meaning

American

British

Etymology

Examples

Canadian Shield American

noun

Geology.

1. the extensive region making up much of northern and central Canada underlain by Precambrian rocks that have been eroded to produce a low shieldlike profile.

Canadian Shield British

noun

1. Also called: Laurentian Shield. Laurentian Plateau. (in Canada) the wide area of Precambrian rock extending west from the Labrador coast to the basin of the Mackenzie and north from the Great Lakes to Hudson Bay and the Arctic: rich in minerals See shield

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of Canadian Shield

First recorded in 1920–25

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Their marvelous designs decorated wide bands of Canadian Shield jutting up from the thawing soil.

From Salon

By 1983, Glenn-Copeland was living in a small cabin far north of Toronto at the edge of the Laurentian Plateau, often referred to as “the Canadian Shield.”

From Washington Post

It’s an interesting place – you could be in the Canadian Shield or the wilds of Finland.

From The Guardian

Onto McIntosh County, sheets of ice advanced from the north, grinding ancient Canadian Shield core bedrock for hundreds of miles as it pushed and stranding that rock as deep as 300 feet in some places.

From Washington Times

The Canadian Shield is a broad ring of forests and ancient bedrock that extends hundreds of miles from the shores of Hudson Bay.

From New York Times

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.