Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A banded or foliated metamorphic rock, usually of the same composition as granite.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A rock which consists essentially of the same mineral elements as granite, namely orthoclase, quartz, and mica, but in which there is a more or less distinctly foliated arrangement of the constituent minerals, and especially of the mica.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Geol.) A crystalline rock, consisting, like granite, of quartz, feldspar, and mica, but having these materials, especially the mica, arranged in planes, so that it breaks rather easily into coarse slabs or flags. Hornblende sometimes takes the place of the mica, and it is then called
hornblendic gneiss orsyenitic gneiss . Similar varieties of related rocks are also called gneiss.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun geology A common and widely-distributed
metamorphic rock havingbands orveins , but notschistose .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a laminated metamorphic rock similar to granite
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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The stratified gneiss, which is the underlying rock of much of this part of the country, dips toward the centre of the continent, but the strata are often so much elevated as to appear nearly on their edges.
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Unfortunately, no such thing as earth or gravel existed in which to sink these posts, and the rock being of the variety known as gneiss, was more than ordinarily tough.
The Home of the Blizzard Being the Story of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-1914 Douglas Mawson 1920
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All these minerals have once been imbedded in the granitic gneiss, which is the principal rock of the region.
The Voyage of the Vega round Asia and Europe, Volume I and Volume II Alexander Leslie 1866
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Many of these rocks are much crumpled, others quite flat, and they are overlaid by soft, variegated gneiss, which is continued alternately with the slates to the top of the hills on the opposite side.
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The prevalent north-east strike of the gneiss is the same in both, differing from the Himalaya, where the stratified rocks generally strike north-west.
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_ The bungalow stands on soft, contorted, decomposing gneiss, which is still the prevalent rock, striking north-east.
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On re-ascending from Punkabaree, the rocks gradually appear more and more dislocated, the clay-slate less so than the quartz and mica-schist, and that again far less than the gneiss, which is so shattered and bent, that it is impossible to say what is _in situ, _ and what not.
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In one place the latter rock is seen bursting through the gneiss, which is slaty and very crystalline at the junction.
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In the black gneiss, which is at the bottom, the wall may stand above the river for a few hundred yards or a mile or two; then, to follow the foot of the wall, you must pass into a lateral canyon for a long distance, perhaps miles, and then back again on the other side of the lateral canyon; then along by the river until another lateral canyon is reached, which must be headed in the black gneiss.
Canyons of the Colorado John Wesley Powell 1868
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Soils are weathered from a variety of crystalline and metamorphic materials, such as gneiss, schist, and granite, as well as some areas of igneous intrusive rocks.
slumry commented on the word gneiss
Gneiss is very gnice.
July 11, 2007
chained_bear commented on the word gneiss
So are gnomes. (In my humble gnopinion.)
August 21, 2008
reesetee commented on the word gneiss
Gno? Greally?
August 21, 2008