drift ice

detached floating ice in masses that drift with the wind or ocean currents, as in the polar seas.

Origin of drift ice

First recorded in 1590–1600

This seemed a needless precaution, for the pieces of drift-ice were hardly large enough to have crushed a skiff.

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 16, No. 93, July, 1865 |Various
During the spring the drift-ice pressed in an insignificant part of one of the many points on the outer edge of the Barrier.

The South Pole, Volumes 1 and 2 |Roald Amundsen
Defiance has gathered like drift-ice in your breast, shutting out all that would come through to bring you good.

The Vinland Champions |Ottilie A. Liljencrantz
Yet we dared not think our life on the drift-ice was so nearly at an end.

Farthest North |Fridtjof Nansen

Open places were often met with, which the travellers had to cross on pieces of drift-ice rowed forward by boat-hooks.

The Voyage of the Vega round Asia and Europe, Volume I and Volume II |A.E. Nordenskieold

drift ice

masses of ice floating in the open sea