THE ALPS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does the Alps mean? 

• THE ALPS (noun)
  The noun THE ALPS has 1 sense:

1. a large mountain system in south-central Europe; scenic beauty and winter sports make them a popular tourist attraction

  Familiarity information: THE ALPS used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• THE ALPS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A large mountain system in south-central Europe; scenic beauty and winter sports make them a popular tourist attraction

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Synonyms:

Alps; the Alps

Instance hypernyms:

chain; chain of mountains; mountain chain; mountain range; range; range of mountains (a series of hills or mountains)

Meronyms (parts of "the Alps"):

Dolomite Alps (an eastern range of the Alps in northeastern Italy famous for their dolomitic limestone)

Matterhorn (a mountain in the Alps on the border between Switzerland and Italy (14,780 feet high); noted for its distinctive shape)

Mont Blanc; Monte Bianco (the highest mountain peak in the Alps; on the border between France and Italy to the south of Geneva (15,781 feet high))

Tyrolean Alps (a popular tourist area in the Tyrol)

Weisshorn (a mountain in the Alps in Switzerland (14,804 feet high))

Holonyms ("the Alps" is a part of...):

Italia; Italian Republic; Italy (a republic in southern Europe on the Italian Peninsula; was the core of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire between the 4th century BC and the 5th century AD)

Austria; Oesterreich; Republic of Austria (a mountainous republic in central Europe; under the Habsburgs (1278-1918) Austria maintained control of the Holy Roman Empire and was a leader in European politics until the 19th century)

France; French Republic (a republic in western Europe; the largest country wholly in Europe)

Schweiz; Suisse; Svizzera; Swiss Confederation; Switzerland (a landlocked federal republic in central Europe)

 Context examples 

I had come out of Italy, over one of the great passes of the Alps, and had since wandered with a guide among the by-ways of the mountains.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Next, I saw Hannibal passing the Alps, who told me “he had not a drop of vinegar in his camp.”

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Among the Alps and Pyrenees, perhaps, there were no mixed characters.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

They had been floating about all the morning, from gloomy St. Gingolf to sunny Montreux, with the Alps of Savoy on one side, Mont St. Bernard and the Dent du Midi on the other, pretty Vevay in the valley, and Lausanne upon the hill beyond, a cloudless blue sky overhead, and the bluer lake below, dotted with the picturesque boats that look like white-winged gulls.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

I do not doubt that he hovers near the spot which I inhabit, and if he has indeed taken refuge in the Alps, he may be hunted like the chamois and destroyed as a beast of prey.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Of the Alps and Pyrenees, with their pine forests and their vices, they might give a faithful delineation; and Italy, Switzerland, and the south of France might be as fruitful in horrors as they were there represented.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

It was echoed from Salêve, the Juras, and the Alps of Savoy; vivid flashes of lightning dazzled my eyes, illuminating the lake, making it appear like a vast sheet of fire; then for an instant every thing seemed of a pitchy darkness, until the eye recovered itself from the preceding flash.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)