slickenside

[ slik-uhn-sahyd ]

nounGeology.
  1. a rock surface that has become more or less polished and striated by slippage along a fault plane.

Origin of slickenside

1
First recorded in 1760–70; slick + -en3 + side1

Words Nearby slickenside

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British Dictionary definitions for slickenside

slickenside

/ (ˈslɪkənˌsaɪd) /


noun
  1. a rock surface with a polished appearance and fine parallel scratches caused by abrasion during fault displacement

Origin of slickenside

1
C18: from dialect slicken, variant of slick + side

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for slickenside

slickenside

[ slĭkən-sīd′ ]


  1. A polished, striated rock surface formed by one rock mass sliding over another in a fault plane.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.