coral

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A rocklike deposit consisting of the calcareous skeletons secreted by various anthozoans. Coral deposits often accumulate to form reefs or islands in warm seas.
2. n. Any of numerous chiefly colonial marine polyps of the class Anthozoa that secrete such calcareous skeletons.
3. n. The red-orange, pinkish, or white deposits secreted by corals of the genus Corallium, used to make jewelry and ornaments.
4. n. An object made of this material.
5. n. A deep or strong pink to moderate red or reddish orange.
6. n. The unfertilized eggs of a female lobster, which turn a reddish color when cooked.
7. adj. Of a deep or strong pink to moderate red or reddish orange.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A general term for the hard calcareous skeleton secreted by the marine cœlenterate polyps for their support and habitation (polypidom). The coral-producing zoöphytes are usually compound animals, young buds sprouting from the body ot the parent polyp and remaining connected with it on the same spot even after it is dead; so that a piece of coral may be regarded as the abode either of one compound animal or of a multitude of individuals. The coralline structure sometimes branches like a shrub, sometimes spreads like a fan, or assumes the appearance of a brain, a flower, a mushroom, etc. (See cut under brain-coral.) These structures sometimes, as in the Pacific and southern parts of the Indian ocean, form reefs from 20 yards to several miles in breadth, extending for hundreds of miles along the coasts, and also the peculiar coral islands known as atolls. (See atoll.) The more abundant reef-builders, at the more moderate depths, are the madrepores, astræids, porites, and meandrines, and, at depths of from 15 to 20 fathoms, the millepores and seriatopores — the great field of coral-development thus lying between low water and 20 fathoms. Coral is nearly a pure calcium carbonate, mixed with more or less horny or gelatinous matter. The fine red coral of commerce, much used for ornaments, is a sclerobasic coral, in appearance somewhat resembling a tree deprived of its leaves and twigs. It is found chiefly in the Mediterranean, where several coral fisheries exist, as off the coasts of Provence, Sardinia, etc. See Coralligena, Corallium, Octocoralla, Sclerobasica, Sclerodermata.
2. n. A child's toy, consisting of a branch of smooth coral with a ring attached, and usually with the addition of small bells and a whistle.
3. n. The unimpregnated roe or eggs of the lobster, which when boiled assume the appearance of coral.
4. n. A fleshy-leafed crassulaceous house-plant, Rochea coccinea, native of South Africa, bearing bright-scarlet flowers.
5. Made of coral; consisting of coral; coralline: as, a coral ornament; a coral reef.
6. Making coral; coralligenous: as, a coral polyp.
7. Containing coral; coraled; coralliferous: as, a coral grove.
8. Resembling coral; especially, of the color of commercial coral; pinkish-red; red: specifically, in heraldry, used of that color when described in blazoning a nobleman's escutcheon according to the system of precious stones. See blazon, n.

Wiktionary

1. n. uncountable A hard substance made of the limestone skeletons of marine polyps.
2. n. countable A colony of marine polyps.
3. n. countable (colour) A somewhat yellowish pink colour, the colour of red coral.
4. adj. Made of coral.
5. adj. Having the yellowish pink colour of coral.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Zoöl.) The hard parts or skeleton of various Anthozoa, and of a few Hydrozoa. Similar structures are also formed by some Bryozoa.
2. n. The ovaries of a cooked lobster; -- so called from their color.
3. n. A piece of coral, usually fitted with small bells and other appurtenances, used by children as a plaything.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. marine colonial polyp characterized by a calcareous skeleton; masses in a variety of shapes often forming reefs
2. adj. of a strong pink to yellowish-pink color
3. n. a variable color averaging a deep pink
4. n. the hard stony skeleton of a Mediterranean coral that has a delicate red or pink color and is used for jewelry
5. n. unfertilized lobster roe; reddens in cooking; used as garnish or to color sauces