botryoidal
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of botryoidal
1810–20; < Greek botryoeid ( ḗs ) shaped like a bunch of grapes ( bótry ( s ) bunch of grapes + -oeidēs -oid ) + -al 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Some of these implements are pecked or chipped, others are smooth—pebbles apparently chosen for their botryoidal shape, polished surface, or fancied resemblance to some animal or other form.
From Archeological Expedition to Arizona in 1895 Seventeenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1895-1896, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1898, pages 519-744 by Fewkes, Jesse Walter
The doctor suddenly gave way to a botryoidal hilarity.
From Soul of a Bishop by Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)
He has a face of that rubicund, knobby type I have heard an indignant mineralogist speak of as botryoidal, and about it waves a quantity of disorderly blond hair.
From A Modern Utopia by Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)
In Captain King's collection are also specimens found on the beach at Port Macquarie, and in the bed of the Hastings River, of common serpentine, and of botryoidal magnesite, from veins in serpentine.
From Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia Performed between the years 1818 and 1822 — Volume 2 by King, Phillip Parker
Its darkness varies a little, but the jet blackness of some of the fronds and of the botryoidal masses seems due to the translucency of the successive grey layers.
From Volcanic Islands by Darwin, Charles
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
