Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A very hard mineral composed of silica, SiO2, found worldwide in many different types of rocks, including sandstone and granite. Varieties of quartz include agate, chalcedony, chert, flint, opal, and rock crystal.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The common form of native silica, Or the oxid of silicon (SiO2).
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Min.) A form of silica, or silicon dioxide (SiO2), occurring in hexagonal crystals, which are commonly colorless and transparent, but sometimes also yellow, brown, purple, green, and of other colors; also in cryptocrystalline massive forms varying in color and degree of transparency, being sometimes opaque.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun mineralogy The most abundant
mineral on the earth's surface, of chemical compositionsilicon dioxide ,Si O 2. It occurs in a variety of forms, bothcrystalline andamorphous . Found in every environment.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun colorless glass made of almost pure silica
- noun a hard glossy mineral consisting of silicon dioxide in crystal form; present in most rocks (especially sandstone and granite); yellow sand is quartz with iron oxide impurities
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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In addition to amethyst and citrine quartz we have the pinkish, milky quartz known as "_rose quartz_."
A Text-Book of Precious Stones for Jewelers and the Gem-Loving Public Frank Bertram Wade
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Of course the yellow quartz should be sold under the proper name, _citrine quartz_.
A Text-Book of Precious Stones for Jewelers and the Gem-Loving Public Frank Bertram Wade
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He called some well-characterized species of _septaria_ in my cabinet _pudding-stone, _ beautiful specimens of limpid hexagonal crystals of quartz, _common quartz_, &c.Mr. George P. Marsh, of Vermont, brings me a letter of introduction.
Personal Memoirs of a Residence of Thirty Years with the Indian Tribes on the American Frontiers Henry Rowe Schoolcraft 1828
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You find tin wherever you like to cut down to one kind o 'rock as is what they call quartz, and where there's tin in it there's a lot o' red powder as well; and when you break a bit there's the tin, all in pretty little black shiny grains.
Charge! A Story of Briton and Boer George Manville Fenn 1870
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Then the reefs and ledges were attacked; crushing machinery was erected, and the form of work which you call quartz mining in America had its beginning.
The Land of the Kangaroo Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey through the Great Island Continent Thomas Wallace Knox 1865
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Say two hundred in quartz an 'dirt -- that leaves two hundred pounds of gold.
All Gold Canon 2010
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Say two hundred in quartz an 'dirt — that leaves two hundred pounds of gold.
All Gold Cañon 2010
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He had had experience in quartz-mining before he went to Alaska, and he enjoyed the recrudescence of his old wisdom in such matters.
Chapter IX 2010
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He had had experience in quartz-mining before he went to
Chapter IX 1910
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Say two hundred in quartz an 'dirt -- that leaves two hundred pounds of gold.
All Gold Canyon 1906
ofravens commented on the word quartz
Plath citations: see note at gild.
April 14, 2008