Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Geology Porous cinderlike fragments of dark lava.
- noun Metallurgy The refuse of a smelted metal or ore; slag.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Dross; cinder; slag: a word of rather variable and indefinite meaning, generally used in the plural, and with reference to volcanic rocks. See
scoriaceous . - noun A genus of geometrid moths, containing such as the black-veined moth, S. dealbata.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The recrement of metals in fusion, or the slag rejected after the reduction of metallic ores; dross.
- noun Cellular slaggy lava; volcanic cinders.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the scum formed by oxidation at the surface of molten metals
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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From the observatory, where His Majesty's faithful servant still remains, come telegrams that the great pebbles -- what we call scoria -- have ruined
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Porcellanite (also called scoria or clinker) forms from the natural burning of coal beds; it caps the hills with distinctive red-orange rock.
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There are tracts of these which are in part or wholly of volcanic origin; then the hills are called scoria buttes.
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The eruption opened a 2,000ft fissure, and also produced lava fountains that built several hills of bubble-filled lava rocks, called scoria, along the vent.
Signs of the Times 2010
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But I was on a bladed road which the gas companies have recently covered with what they call "scoria".
grouse Diary Entry grouse 2007
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No, what the gas companies call "scoria" is basically crushed rock that is not crushed as fine as gravel.
grouse Diary Entry grouse 2007
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In the majority of cases the lavas consist of a mass of crystals floating in a liquid magma, and the distension of such a mass by the escape of steam from its midst gives rise to the formation of the rough cindery-looking material to which the name of "scoria" is applied.
The San Francisco calamity by earthquake and fire Charles Morris 1877
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Eroded buttes, Hell Creek badlands, scoria (burnt coal) mounds, and salt pans punctuate a thick mat of shortgrass prairie and dusky gray sagebrush.
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It was a shield volcano of thin basaltic flows interleaved with ash and scoria overlaid in places by later volcanic domes, plugs and dykes.
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The interstratified basalt lava, scoria and pyroclastic rocks yield sand, clayey soils in depressions, on plains and on outward draining slopes and a sterile cemented hardpan surface where hydrated.
Islands and Protected Areas of the Gulf of California, Mexico 2008
yarb commented on the word scoria
Citation on scraggy.
July 23, 2008