hardpan

[ hahrd-pan ]

noun

any layer of firm detrital matter, as of clay, underlying soft soil.: Compare caliche, duricrust.
hard, unbroken ground.

the fundamental or basic aspect of anything; solid foundation; underlying reality: the hardpan of mathematical theory.

Origin of hardpan

An Americanism dating back to 1810–20; hard + pan¹

Words Nearby hardpan

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use hardpan in a sentence

They passed grapes, peaches, and plums and lingered on 12,000 acres of figs that a Kansas preacher was planting in the red hardpan.
How we drained California dry | Mark Arax | December 16, 2021 | MIT Technology Review
"My God, My Glock, and my Gallant" Above hardpan deserts, red dawns chased away Orion, the Hunter, day after night.
Iraq War 10th Anniversary: The Iraqi Highway Patrolman | John Kael Weston | March 20, 2013 | THE DAILY BEAST
For hardpan, shale, loose rock and similar materials, ample strength of teeth and dipper is of greater importance than its shape.
Steam Shovels and Steam Shovel Work | E. A. Hermann
Old hardpan himself couldn't have beaten it, even in his mule-skinning days.
Fore! | Charles Emmett Van Loan
Where blue gravel or hardpan and clean bank gravel are procurable, a good road may be made by mixing the two together.
The Future of Road-making in America | Archer Butler Hulbert

The cost of specially made grubs for digging in hardpan is about $26 per dozen.
Concrete Construction | Halbert P. Gillette
Old Scarface whitewashes fences for a nickel an hour and they live in a dirty hole of a cabin down in hardpan.
The Trail Boys on the Plains | Jay Winthrop Allen

British Dictionary definitions for hardpan

hardpan

/ (ˈhɑːdˌpæn) /

noun

a hard impervious layer of clay below the soil, resistant to drainage and root growth

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 hardpan

hardpan

[ härd′păn′ ]

A hard, usually clay-rich layer of soil lying at or just below the ground surface, in which soil particles are cemented together by silica, iron oxide, calcium carbonate, or organic matter that has precipitated from water percolating through the soil. Hardpans do not soften when exposed to water. Also called caliche

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