Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The group of natural processes, including weathering, dissolution, abrasion, corrosion, and transportation, by which material is worn away from the earth's surface.
- noun The process of eroding or the condition of being eroded.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The act or operation of eating or gnawing away.
- noun Hence The act of wearing away by any means.
- noun In zoology, the abrasion or wearing away of a surface or margin, as if by gnawing; the state of being erose; the act of eroding.
- noun In geology, the wearing away of rocks by water and other agencies of geological change.
- noun The state of being eaten or worn away; corrosion; canker; ulceration.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The act or operation of eroding or eating away.
- noun The state of being eaten away; corrosion; canker.
- noun The wearing away of the earth's surface by any natural process. The chief agent of erosion is running water; minor agents are glaciers, the wind, and waves breaking against the coast.
- noun fig. a gradual reduction or lessening as if by an erosive force.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun uncountable The
result of having been beingworn away oreroded , as by aglacier onrock or thesea on acliff face . - noun uncountable The changing of a surface by
mechanical action,friction ,thermal expansion contraction , orimpact . - noun uncountable Destruction by abrasive action of fluids.
- noun mathematics, image processing One of two fundamental operations in morphological image processing from which all other morphological operations are derived.
- noun dentistry Loss of tooth
enamel due to non-bacteriogenic chemical processes. - noun medicine A shallow
ulceration orlesion , usually involving skin orepithelial tissue.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a gradual decline of something
- noun erosion by chemical action
- noun (geology) the mechanical process of wearing or grinding something down (as by particles washing over it)
- noun condition in which the earth's surface is worn away by the action of water and wind
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Under the term erosion I include the action of water, of ice, and of the atmosphere, including frost and rain.
Fragments of science, V. 1-2 John Tyndall 1856
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Both of these trends make sense but I think Lovell makes a more interesting observation when he talks about what he describes as the erosion of the hardcore.
Indie games retailers struggling - hardcore gamer decline to blame? 2010
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Later, explaining his opinion to a reporter, Sununu cited a $250 million state budget deficit; what he called the erosion of family values in the last legislative session; and Lynch's failure to persuade lawmakers from his own party to vote for his constitutional amendment on education.
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This erosion is most definitely due to modern communication.
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This erosion is most definitely due to modern communication.
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MPs on the committee called for the World Service budget to be protected to "prevent any risk of long-term erosion of the World Service's funding and of parliament's right to oversee its work".
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It looks like investors populating NLY options are bracing for near-term erosion in the price of the REITs shares through August expiration.
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The financial erosion from the credit crunch also has affected Europe.
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Still, it's worth considering whether something other than normal erosion is affecting American Idol (Fox, tonight, 8 ET/PT).
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It looks like investors populating NLY options are bracing for near-term erosion in the price of the REITs shares through August expiration.
senwick commented on the word erosion
What is the opposite of this word?
March 31, 2009
Prolagus commented on the word erosion
...accretion?
March 31, 2009