cliff dwelling
1
8.0
- noun
- /klɪf ˈdwɛlɪŋ/
- US
:
vivienda en acantilado
- A kiva at a cliff dwelling might be entered through an opening in the wall.
Examples
-
The little girl, or someone like her, appears again along a path near a collection of cliff dwellings.
Academic text (1999) -
"It's an Anasazi cliff dwelling!" Madeline's voice swelled with delight.
Fiction book (1993) -
"How many cliff dwellings are there?" I asked.
Academic text (2007) -
And the ladders that had been missing at the cliff dwellings were here waiting to be climbed.
Fiction book (1993) -
In the canyons beyond where Jos runs cattle, there are the cliff dwellings.
Academic text (2007) -
Archaeological evidence suggests that, in the absence of any identifiable enemies, the Anasazi moved out of their cliff dwellings for two reasons.
Academic text (1996) -
The development and subsequent abandonment of the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde by the Anasazi around A.D. 1300 is a case in point.
Academic text (1996) -
In tourist season, the mesa top is jammed with visitors eager to see the cliff dwellings and the kivas, or circular underground chambers, that these early architects left behind.
Academic text (2004) -
The story of the Anasazi began around A.D. 500 and ended rather abruptly in A.D. 1300 with their abandonment of the cliff dwellings they had so painfully and carefully constructed barely 100 years earlier.
Academic text (1996) -
Cliff Palace is a famous cliff dwelling that showcases the ingenuity of ancient cultures.
How Big
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a shelter or house built into the sides of cliffs' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'cliff' (a steep rock face) with 'dwelling' (a place where people reside). This is a straightforward descriptive compound (location + type of residence) following common compositional patterns found cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows both words would readily infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
The noun cliff dwelling gives a clear picture: a cliff, a steep rock wall, and a dwelling, a home built into its ledges. So today it means 'a shelter or house built into the side of a cliff'.