Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A black variety of garnet.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A variety of garnet of a deep-black color.
- noun In conchology, a fossil melanian.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Min.) A black variety of garnet.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun mineralogy A
black variety ofandradite .
Etymologies
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Examples
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And his veins shooting melanite phosphor, his creamtocustard cometshair and his asteroid knuckles, ribs and members.
Finnegans Wake 2006
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The chief of this class is the melanite, sometimes dull, yet often vitreous; it is mostly found in volcanic rocks, such as tuff; this variety is very popular with jewellers for mourning ornaments, for as it is a beautiful velvet-black in colour and quite opaque, it is pre-eminent for this purpose, being considerably less brittle than jet, though heavier.
The Chemistry, Properties and Tests of Precious Stones John Mastin
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Smokeless powders came into use, the explosive properties of picric acid were discovered, and melanite, ballistite, and cordite appeared in the last quarter of the century, so that by 1890 nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin-base powders had generally replaced black powder as a propellant.
Artillery Through the Ages A Short Illustrated History of Cannon, Emphasizing Types Used in America Albert Manucy
chained_bear commented on the word melanite
"A fossil snail of the family Melaniidae (now called Thiaridae)." (OED)
September 5, 2008
hernesheir commented on the word melanite
Black form of the mineral andradite.
June 2, 2010