caliche
Americannoun
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a surface deposit consisting of sand or clay impregnated with crystalline salts such as sodium nitrate or sodium chloride.
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a zone of calcium carbonate or other carbonates in soils of semiarid regions.
noun
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Also called: calcrete. a bed of sand or clay in arid regions cemented by calcium carbonate, sodium chloride, and other soluble minerals
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Also called: duricrust. a surface layer of soil encrusted with calcium carbonate, occurring in arid regions
Etymology
Origin of caliche
1855–60; < Spanish: flake of lime, equivalent to cal lime (< Latin calc-; see chalk) + -iche noun suffix
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.
I sprinkled caliche all over because it’s very important on your way up here, but it’s also a metaphor of what it’s like to be an immigrant in the United States.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2022
In “Solito” and in his poetry, Zamora peppers his writing with Spanish punctuation and caliche, or Salvadoran vernacular, because “that’s how we think, that’s how I think,” he said.
From New York Times ● Sep. 5, 2022
Expect gooseberry, pink grapefruit and minerality thanks to the caliche soils these vines grow in.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 28, 2020
He’s divorced with three grown daughters and lives alone in a small cabin on the ranch, removed from civilization by 30 miles of bone white caliche road.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 19, 2017
By the time of Gilmore’s visit, Blackwater Draw was an arid, almost vegetation-free jumble of sandy drifts and faces of fractured caliche.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
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.
