hornstone
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of hornstone
1720–30; translation of German Hornstein
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.
The shales become dense, highly crystalline rocks of a "hornstone" type, with porphyritic developments of silicate minerals.
From The Economic Aspect of Geology by Leith, C. K. (Charles Kenneth)
Masses, and in some instances nodules, of hornstone, resembling true flint, are found imbedded in it; yet it is not to be confounded with the chalk formation.
From Scenes and Andventures in the Semi-Alpine Region of the Ozark Mountains of Missouri and Arkansas by Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe
Above this, constituting the top layer, or surface soil, rests a bed of diluvial materials, filled with broken-down fragments of rock, masses of radiated quartz, and chips of hornstone.
From Scenes and Andventures in the Semi-Alpine Region of the Ozark Mountains of Missouri and Arkansas by Schoolcraft, Henry Rowe
Another of the dikes of the north-east of Ireland has converted a mass of red sandstone into hornstone.
From The Student's Elements of Geology by Lyell, Charles, Sir
The porphyry has a compact basis, like hornstone, of a dull brown colour, which contains imbedded crystals of felspar and quartz, and occasionally of augite.
From Narrative of a Second Expedition to the Shores of the Polar Sea by Franklin, John
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.