Meaning of Mount Everest | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A mountain in the Himalayas, on the border of Solukhumbu district, Koshi, Nepal and Tingri County, Shigatse, Tibet Autonomous Region, China; the world's highest mountain above sea level.
2. An endeavor that is very demanding yet rewarding; also, something which is the highest achievement, challenge, etc.; the epitome, the pinnacle, the ultimate.
   figuratively

Equivalents

Examples

“[T]he privilege, as well as the duty, devolves on me to assign to this lofty pinnacle of our globe, a name whereby it may be known among geographers and become a household word among civilized nations. In virtue of this privilege, in testimony of my affectionate respect for a revered chief, in conformity with what I believe to be the wish of all the Members of the scientific department, over which I have the honour to preside, and to perpetuate the memory of that illustrious master of accurate geographical research, I have determined to name this noble peak of the Himalayas ‘Mont Everest.’ […] In the case of Mont Everest the accordance of the independent heights is closer than could have been anticipated, because the mountain, though lofty and massive, is not a sharp well-defined peak and was observed from great distances.”

“It appears from a late survey made of the Himalaya range, by Colonel Waugh, that the Khanchinjinga, which has been hitherto supposed to be the highest summit, is, in fact, not so—a higher mountain having been discovered, situated between Katmandoo and Khanchinjinga. This last named is 28,156 feet above the level of the sea; but the new summit reaches the enormous height of 29,002 feet. It has been proposed to call this Mount Everest, after a former Surveyor-General of India.”

“EVEREST MOUNT.—A mountain of the Himalaya range, situate between the mountain of Kinchingunga, in Sikkim, and the city of Khatmandoo, in Nepaul, and presumed to be the loftiest summit in the world. Its elevation is 29,002 feet above the level of the sea. The highest summit of the Andes is Sorata, having an elevation of 25,267 feet. Mount Everest is reported to have been recently discovered by Colonel Waugh, and to have been named in compliment to the late surveyor-general of India.”

“But narrative, after all, is Mr. Gilfillan's forte, and his picture of the flood is a masterpiece. […] Then, we have mountains submerged and volcanoes extinguished, "Ben Nevis sunk fathoms and fathoms more beneath the waves"—"the eye of Mount Blanc darkened, Old Taurus blotted out," the tide "rolling over the summit of Mount Everest, and violating its last particle of virgin snow"—and lastly, "some human scenes of extraordinary interest," which Mr. Gilfillan descries amidst the surrounding confusion.”

“The mountains of Asia are the loftiest in the world. Mount Everest, one of the Himalayas, is more than five and one-half miles high,—a mile higher than Mount Tupungato!”

“Chimborazo was long supposed to be the tallest mountain on the globe, but its supremacy has been supplanted by Mount Everest in Asia, and Aconcagua in Chile. [Footnote †: Mount Everest is 29,000 feet, and Aconcagua 23,200. [Hermann von] Schlagintweit enumerates thirteen Himalayan summits over 25,000 feet, and forty-six above 20,000.]”

“It was one of those termite cones that, according to Lieutenant Cameron's comparison, are more astonishing than the pyramids of Egypt, raised by the hands of men, because they have been built by such small insects. "It is," said he, "as if a nation had built Mount Everest, the highest mountain of the Himalaya chain."”

“Although the real elevation, and even the geographical position, of even the highest mountain in the world are quite uncertain, it may be assumed that the goal lies somewhere near the northern frontier of Nepal, very probably north of the summit recognised by surveyors as Mount Everest, and that the height is at least 29,000 to 30,000 feet.”

“The years have gone by and still we know not whether or no [George] Mallory and [Andrew] Irvine reached the summit. But the will to climb Mount Everest is still alive.”

“Our investigations were carried out almost exclusively among the Sherpa people living within thirty miles of Mount Everest. Tracks and sightings of the Yeti have been reported over a much wider area than this, but a large proportion of the more tangible evidence used in support of the Yeti theory comes from the region we examined.”

“This abode of snow is the loftiest mountain range on earth. Its highest peak is the mighty Mount Everest. The Himalayas extend from Afghanistan in the east up to south-east Tibet, a distance of over 2,400 km in length and 250 to 400 km in breadth.”

“Nepal and China, the two countries that share a border on Mount Everest, announced a new official measurement of the mountain’s height on Tuesday: 8,848.86 meters, or 29,031.69 feet.”

“Lhakpa Sherpa has climbed Mount Everest 10 times, the most ascents ever by a woman. She has no plans of slowing down.”

“We stand on the colossal peak of King Lear, with Othello on our right hand and Macbeth on our left, the sublime masses of Elizabethan mountain country rolling on every side of us, yet plainly dominated by the extraordinary central cluster of aiguilles on which we have planted ourselves. This triple summit of the later tragedies of [William] Shakespeare forms the Mount Everest of the poetry of the world.”

“After this rather tricky problem let's climb the Mount Everest of all writing problems. I mean, of course, the world-famous, forbidding peak of U.S. income-tax prose.”

“Personally, as a coach, I always considered the NCAA Tournament to be the Mount Everest of basketball. Just to be asked to climb it was a compliment.”

“War and Peace is often seen as the Mount Everest of novels. A daunting door-stopper of a tome, at almost 1,500 pages, it is rarely finished.”

“I lost seven kilos in the heat, but I needed to do it. I had to put myself through the wall to get where I needed to be. This was my Mount Everest. I had to climb it to prove to myself that I could compete at this level. But by gee, it was bloody hard work.”

“Most great book lists concentrate on works of the highest literary or scholarly merit. Think of the Harvard Classics, Harold Bloom's "Western Canon," the Modern Library's selection of "the 100 best novels of the 20th century." Here, the compilers imply, are our cultural masterpieces, the Mount Everests and K2s all literate people should scale in their lifetime.”

“Two weeks later, [Alia] Crum was lying awake in bed when his comment came back to her. "If you were climbing Everest, you can imagine it would be cold, and there'd be some nights it would be dark, and you'd be tired," Crum thought. "You'd be pretty miserable. But what did you expect? You're climbing Everest." At that time in her life, finishing her dissertation was her Mount Everest. She wasn't sure she would succeed. But that challenge was important enough to be worth weathering a few cold, dark nights.”

“O[pera]W[ire]: Many see it as the Mount Everest of tenor roles. What made you feel ready to take it on at this moment in your life? And why with ASO [the American Symphony Orchestra]? / R[ussell] T[homas]: It definitely is the Mount Everest of tenor roles!!”

“To people of a certain disposition – thrill-seekers, daredevils, folks who never want to taste their food again – the Carolina Reaper is the Mount Everest of foodstuffs. It must be conquered.”

“To get to Newtown Creek, a severely polluted New York City waterway and Superfund site once teeming with oyster beds, the Mohawk artist Alan Michelson wended his way past the detritus of industrial Queens – the garbage haulers, the taco truck parking lots, the Mount Everests of scrap metal and building debris being clawed by construction cranes.”

“Steve Asmussen reached the Mount Everest of horse racing Monday with his North American record 10,000th victory as a professional trainer.”

CEFR level