alas

interjection

1. 1

   Used to express sorrow, regret, compassion, grief, resignation, or disappointment.

   I wanted to catch the last bus home, but alas, I was ten minutes late and had to take a taxi instead.

   Helas I lamente the dull abuſyd brayne The enfatuate fantaſies the wytles wylfulnes Of on and hothyr at me that haue dyſdayne

   Alas poore Yorick, I knew him Horatio, a fellow of infinite Ieſt; of moſt excellent fancy, he hath borne me on his backe a thouſand times: And how abhorred my Imagination is, my gorge riſes at it.

   Standing afarre off for the feare of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great citie Babylon, that mighty citie: for in one houre is thy iudgement come.

noun

1. 1

   A type of geological depression formed by the subsidence of permafrost, sometimes (partially) filled by a lake.

   Alternative forms: alass, alaas

   […] alasses probably exist south of the Yukon Flats. Another bus tour went to the east, and alasses and pingos were examined on the terraces.

   […] alasses. They are formed when a large quantity of ground ice thaws (up to 80% by volume) in permafrost. Alasses are characteristics of the thermal degradation stages of permafrost. Their subsequent thaw induces a lowering of the [terrain].

   […] permafrost (yedoma), the large volume loss that accompanies the melt of excess ice to produce an alas is irreversible, and secondary thermokarst lakes developed in ice-rich epigenetic permafrost on the alas floor are likely to be much smaller and shallower than the original thermokarst lake.

Forms

plural

alases, alasses