pitchstone

American  

[pich-stohn] / ˈpɪtʃˌstoʊn /

noun

1. a glassy volcanic rock having a resinous luster and resembling hardened pitch.

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pitchstone British  

/ ˈpɪtʃˌstəʊn /

noun

1. a dark glassy acid volcanic rock similar in composition to granite, usually intruded as dykes, sills, etc

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Etymology

Origin of pitchstone

1775–85; translation of German Pechstein. See pitch ², stone

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

pitchstone

Using four 20-in. mirrors, he focuses sunlight on powdered pitchstone in a glass laboratory tube until its water of crystallization steams off.

From Time Magazine Archive

The whole northern and lower portion of the island had vanished, except an isolated pitchstone rock, ten yards square, and projecting out of the ocean with deep water all around it.

From Complete Story of the San Francisco Horror by Richard Linthicum

There is also much imperfect rubbly pitchstone, with the interstices charged with powdery carbonate of lime apparently of contemporaneous origin.

From Geological Observations on South America by Charles Darwin

If pumice was to be found anywhere in Scotland, we might a priori expect to find it in connection with by far the largest mass of pitchstone in the kingdom.

From The Cruise of the Betsey or, A Summer Ramble Among the Fossiliferous Deposits of the Hebrides. With Rambles of a Geologist or, Ten Thousand Miles Over the Fossiliferous Deposits of Scotland by W. S. (William Samuel) Symonds

The characteristic rock is a black vitreous trachyte resembling pitchstone, but anhydrous.

From The Andes and the Amazon Across the Continent of South America by James Orton

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