Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Having or forming a shell.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Provided with a shell, as a mollusk; testaceous.
- Pertaining to or having the characters of the Conchifera; bivalve, as a mollusk; lamellibranchiate.
- Bearing or containing shells: as, “conchiferous deposits,”
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Producing or having shells.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective biology Having a
shell (used especially ofbivalve molluscs ) - adjective geology Containing
shells
Etymologies
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Examples
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Chili, or anywhere on the western coast of South America, naturally led Mr. Darwin to the conclusion that "where the bed of the sea is either stationary or rising, circumstances are far less favourable than where the level is sinking to the accumulation of conchiferous strata of sufficient thickness and extension to resist the average vast amount of denudation."
The Harvard Classics Volume 38 Scientific Papers (Physiology, Medicine, Surgery, Geology) Various
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The absence of any deposits of importance containing recent shells in Chili, or anywhere on the western coast of South America, naturally led Mr. Darwin to the conclusion that where the bed of the sea is either stationary or rising, circumstances are far less favourable than where the level is sinking to the accumulation of conchiferous strata of sufficient thickness and extension to resist the average vast amount of denudation.
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Amidst the first strata I suffered the watery action to expend itself upon cooling, crystallized masses; and by the time I had got him into the tertiary period, amongst the transition chalks of Maestricht and the conchiferous marls of Gosau, he was ready for a new wife.
The Caxtons — Complete Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838
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Item, in the adjoining pigeon-hole, a goodly collection of pebbles with holes in them, preserved for the same reason, in company with a crooked sixpence; item, neatly arranged in fanciful mosaics, several periwinkles, Blackamoor's teeth (I mean the shell so called), and other specimens of the conchiferous ingenuity of
My Novel — Complete Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838
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Amidst the first strata I suffered the watery action to expend itself upon cooling, crystallized masses; and by the time I had got him into the tertiary period, amongst the transition chalks of Maestricht and the conchiferous marls of Gosau, he was ready for a new wife.
The Caxtons — Volume 09 Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838
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Soc_., vol. vi.] [Footnote 165: See Darwin on the absence of extensive modern conchiferous deposits in South America, _Geological Observations_, pt. iii., ch. v.]
The Andes and the Amazon Across the Continent of South America James Orton 1853
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Observations on South America, "1846) deals with the causes of the absence of recent conchiferous deposits on the coasts of South
More Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 2 Charles Darwin 1845
reesetee commented on the word conchiferous
Having or forming a shell.
November 20, 2007