Definition of "icecap" [ice•cap]

• An extensive dome-shaped or platelike perennial cover of ice and snow that spreads out from a center and covers a large area, especially of land. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Thanks to global warming, the Arctic icecap is rapidly melting, opening up access to massive natural resources and creating shipping shortcuts that could save billions of dollars a year."
• "We are given to believe that the polar icecap is receding, but if the polar icecap was receding August in our part of the world would be hot and dry as when the icecap receded, westerlies would move northward and high pressure systems from the south predominate."
• "The icecap is a vast area of white wilderness, unspoiled and unknown, inhabited by polar bears and seals."