OBSIDIAN • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Obsidian

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/əbsˈɪdiən/ Listen

Obsidian

noun

Acid or granitic glass formed by the rapid cooling of lava without crystallization; usually dark, but transparent in thin pieces.

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Etymology of 'Obsidian'

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"Obsidian" Quotes from Famous Books

... lightly, joyously. Julia, at the head, moved with the frank, free, swinging gait of an Amazon. Peachy seemed to flit along the ground; there was in her progress something of the dipping, curving grace of her flight. Clara glided; her effect of motionless movement was almost obsidian. Chiquita kept the slow, languid gait, both swaying and pulsating, of a Spanish woman. Lulu trotted with the brisk, pleasing ...

— Angel Island • Inez Haynes Gillmore

... better than iron, but it is not essential for the ordinary purposes of life; indeed, most ancient civilized nations had nothing better than iron. Any bit of good iron may be heated as hot as the camp-fire admits; hammered flat, lashed into a handle, and sharpened on a stone. A fragment of flint or obsidian may be made fast to a handle, to be used as a carpenter cuts paper With a chisel; namely, by holding it dagger-fashion, and drawing it over the skin or flesh which he wishes to cut. Shells are sometimes employed as substitutes for knives, also thin strips of ...

— The Art of Travel - Shifts and Contrivances Available in Wild Countries • Francis Galton

... purposes of household ornament. The raw material appears from Pliny's account to have undergone two fusions; the first converted it into a rough mass called ammonitrum, which was melted again and became pure glass. We are also told of a dark-colored glass resembling obsidian, plentiful enough to be cast ...

— Museum of Antiquity - A Description of Ancient Life • L. W. Yaggy

... defined by circumstances. The South Australian soil was so fruitful that it only needed to be thrown seed. Sir George satisfied himself that it contained gypsum, such as belongs to the fertile parts of Egypt. Thus gypsum reared wheat, under the foot-print of the black man, who shod his spear in obsidian. Things that began before history, were meeting from very different sides. Nature extended one hand to the inflow of civilisation, another to the rude holding of it back. There was a point of contact in the adventure of a settler, Turner by name, whom Sir George Grey met near the Murray River. It ...

— The Romance of a Pro-Consul - Being The Personal Life And Memoirs Of The Right Hon. Sir - George Grey, K.C.B. • James Milne

Words linked to "Obsidian" : volcanic glass