| 单词 |
stalactite |
| 释义 |
stalactite|ˈstælæktaɪt, stəˈlæktaɪt|
Also 9 stalactyte.
[Anglicized form of stalactites. Cf. F. stalactit (1752 in Hatz.-Darm.), G. stalaktit.
Here and in stalagmite some U.S. Dicts. recognize only the second of the two pronunciations given.]
1. a. An icicle-like formation of calcium carbonate, depending from the roof or sides of a cavern and produced by the dropping of waters which have percolated through, and partially dissolved, the overlying limestone.
1677Plot Oxfordsh. 96 Such are the stones made of nothing but such water, as it drops from the roofs and caverns of the Rocks, and therefore called Stalactites. 1789Mills in Phil. Trans. LXXX. 93 Some calcareous stalactites pendent from the roof. 1793Phil. Trans. LXXXIV. 405 In one of them rises a stalactite of uncommon bigness. 1819Shelley Ode to Heaven 31 Like weak insects in a cave, Lighted up by stalactites. 1847Disraeli Tancred v. v, With pendants of daring grace hanging like stalactites from some sparry cavern. 1877W. Black Green Past. xxxvii. 295 They seem to be a stupendous semicircular wall of solid and motionless stalactites.
b. A similar formation of other material.
1801J. Barrow Trav. S. Africa I. 164 From the under surfaces of the..rotten sand-stone were suspended a great quantity of saline stalactites. 1802Acerbi Trav. I. 44 All the rooms..were embellished by long stalactites of multifarious shapes..composed of the treacle and congealed water. 1860Tyndall Glac. i. xi. 77 A vertical precipice, from the coping of which vast stalactites of ice depended. 1890E. S. Dana in J. D. Dana's Charac. Volcanoes 322 The delicate stalactites and stalagmites of lava which occur in the caverns. 1902Cornish Naturalist on Thames 101 Stalactites of finest meal-dust hung from every nail..on the walls.
2. A general term for limestone found in this formation.
1796Kirwan Elem. Min. (ed. 2) I. 88 Stalactite, alabaster, sinter. 1823Buckland Reliq. Diluv. 10 The roof and sides were found to be partially studded and cased over with a coating of stalactite. 1839H. T. De la Beche Rep. Geol. Cornwall, etc. xiii. 413 More or less filled by loam, sand, or stalactite. 1908Blackw. Mag. July 102/1 White crusts of stalactite.
3. Arch. (See quot. 1895.)
1851W. Irving Alhambra (rev. ed.) 76 The lofty ceiling was originally of the same favorite material, with the usual frostwork and pensile ornaments or stalactites. 1895Funk's Stand. Dict., Stalactite... A downward-projecting ornament of a vaulted surface. 1931C. Hill Moorish Towns in Spain 147 We stand amid a small labyrinth of columns, under a roof of stalactites in stone. 1974Encycl. Brit. Micropædia IX. 517/1 A peculiar type of faceted, crystal-shaped stalactite is found in Turkey; this form became the most common Turkish capital decoration.
4. attrib. and Comb.: stalactite-work Arch. (see quot. 1902).
1855J. Fergusson Illustr. Handbk. Archit. I. ix. v. 463 Instead of the simple curves of the dome, the roofs are made up of honeycombed or stalactite patterns, which look more like natural rock-work than the forms of an art. 1864J. Hunt tr. Vogt's Lect. Man ix. 247 A stalactite roof. 1881–2Clara Bell tr. Ebers' Egypt I. 227 The stalactite ornament, as it has been called—from a false idea that it was an imitation of those fantastical natural formations which [etc.]. Ibid. 228 Perso-Turkish Stalactite Capital [figured]. 1897Allbutt's Syst. Med. IV. 798 Small stalactite⁓like projections. 1897W. Millar Plastering 422 A stalactite-shaped cornice. Ibid. 425 Other mosques, palaces, and monuments with stalactite domes and cornices. 1902Sturgis Dict. Archit. III. 612 Stalactite work, a system of corbelling of peculiar form or the imitation of such corbelling in wood and plaster. |
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单词 stalactitic 释义 stalactitic, a.|stlkttk|[f. stalactite + -ic.]1. Having the form or ......