rock

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“

Above the wooded hills all is bare rock, that is, from the clouds upwards; and the rock is the purest white.

—The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci — Complete

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Definitions (140)

American Heritage Dictionary (27)

noun Relatively hard, naturally formed mineral or petrified matter; stone.
noun A relatively small piece or fragment of such material.
noun A relatively large body of such material, as a cliff or peak.

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Century Dictionary (99)

The mass of mineral matter of which the earth, so far as accessible to observation, is made up; a mass, fragment, or piece of that crust, if too large to be designated as a stone, and if spoken of in a general way without special designation of its nature. When there is such special designation, the term stone is more generally adopted, as in building-stone, paving-stone, limestone, freestone; or the special designation of the material itself may be used without qualification, as granite, slate, marble, etc. The unconsolidated stony materials which form a considerable part of the superficial crust, or that which is at or near the surface, such as sand, gravel, and clay, are not commonly designated as rock or rocks; the geologist, however, includes under the term rock, for the purpose of general description, all the consolidated materials forming the crust, as well as the fragmental or detrital beds which have been derived from it. Rocks are ordinarily composed of two or more mineral species, but some rocks are made up almost entirely of one species: thus, granite is essentially an aggregate of quartz, feldspar, and mica, while marble usually consists chiefly of carbonate of lime, and sandstone and quartzite chiefly of quartz. The number of varieties of rock, according to the classification and description of lithologists, is very great. The number of names popularly in use for rocks is small: granite, porphyry, lava, sandstone or freestone, limestone, marble, and slate are terms under one or the other of which by far the largest part of the rocks are commonly classed. (See these words.) More than 600 distinct species of minerals have been described, but a very small number of them occur as essential constituents of rocks: of these, quartz, the feldspars, the micas, the minerals of the augite and hornbl ende group, talc, chlorite, olivin, and carbonate of lime, with which often more or less of carbonate of magnesia is associated, form the great bulk of the rocks. But there are several other minerals which are quite commonly found as accessory constituents, and sometimes in masses large enough to be worthy of the designation of rock: such are garnet, epidote, various oxids of iron, pyrites, apatite, andalusite, leucite, tourmalin, and a few others. Some mineral substances occur in masses of great extent and thickness, but do not play the part of rock-forming minerals: such are salt, gypsum, and the varieties of coal. Rocks are variously classed by geologists. The most general subdivision of them is into igneous and aqueous: the former are divided into plutonic and volcanic, according as they have been formed under conditions of depth and pressure, like granite, or have been poured out upon the surface in the manner of lava. The aqueous rocks are also designated as sedimentary, fossiliferous, or stratified. The sedimentary rocks in general are believed to be made up of material resulting from the decay and abrasion of igneous masses, since almost all geologists admit that the crust of the earth has cooled from a state of fusion. Part of the stratified deposits, however, have been formed through the agency of life, as in the case of the limestones, most of which have been secreted from an aqueous solution by various organisms, and of coal, which is the result of a peculiar kind of decay of vegetable matter. Some rocks have been formed by the simple evaporation of a solution: for instance, rock-salt. The sedimentary rocks are classified for lithological description according to the nature and texture of the materials of which they are made up: they are arranged in the chronological order of their deposition according to the nature of the fossils which they contain. Sedimentary rocks have frequently been greatly changed in character by metamorphosis, by which they have been rendered crystalline, and sometimes made so closely to resemble igneous rocks that their true character can only with the greatest difficulty be made out. Whan ye han maad the coost so clene Of rokkes that ther nys no stoon ysene. Chaucer, Franklin's Tale, l. 15772. A rock may be defined as a mass of mineral matter, composed of one, more usually of several, kinds of minerals, having, as a rule, no definite external form, and liable to vary considerably in chemical composition. A. Geikie, Encyc. Brit., X. 229.
A stone of any size, even a pebble. [Vulgar, U. S.] I put a hot rock to his feet, and made him a large bowl o' catmint tea. Georgia Scenes, p. 193. Now I hold it is not decent for a scientific gent To say another is an ass,—at least, to all intent; Nor should the individual who happens to be meant Reply by heaving rocks at him to any great extent. Bret Harte, The Society upon the Stanislaus.
A mass of stone forming an eminence or a cliff. And he [Samson] went down and dwelt in the top of the rock Etam. Judges xv. 8. When he sees afar His country's weather-bleached and battered rocks From the greeu wave emerging. Cowper, Task, v. 834.

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These we might have climbed had the weather been soft, for the rock was a trap formation, and offered numerous seams and ledges; but now there was a coating of ice and snow upon them that rendered the ascent impossible. — The Hunters' Feast Conversations Around the Camp Fire
The thought occurred to him that possibly the Galatea party might be more safe if quartered upon the rock, and thus entirely separated from the pirates; but on reconsidering the question and talking it over with the others the conclusion arrived at was that the rock was an exposed and sterile spot for a habitation, in addition to which it possessed other disadvantages; and that perhaps, for the present, it would be better not to propose it At length the eventful day arrived on which the ceremony of laying the keel of the new schooner was to be performed. — The Pirate Island A Story of the South Pacific
This rock is a promontory on the island of Leucas, upon which was a temple to Apollo. — Woman's Work in Music
A transition It glowed along all its length and grew tenuous of aspect, until in a moment that solid thing which had been solidly resting there on a rock was a wraith of vehicle. — The White Invaders
Under the rock was a long heap of loose stones which the professor had wisely piled up in front of the upright courses of masonry through which he had broken into my resting-place. — The Romance of Golden Star ...

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stone · mountain · wall · sand · cliff · earth · water · cloud · grass · river · land · road

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (8)

American Heritage Dictionary (2)

Middle English, from Old North French roque, from Vulgar Latin *rocca.
Middle English rokken, from Old English roccian.

Century Dictionary (6)

from Middle English rocke, rokke, from Anglo-Saxon *rocc (in stān-rocc, ‘stone-rock’) = Old French roc, masculine (= Italian rocco, masculine), roke, usually assibilated roche (later Middle English roche, English obsolete roach, q. v.), French roche, feminine, = Provencal roca, rocha = Spanish roca = Portuguese roca, rocha = Italian rocca, roccia, from Middle Latin roca, rocca, a rock; prob. of Celtic origin: Irish Gaelic roc = Breton roch, a rock. According to Diez, prob. from Late Latin *rupica, or rupea, from Latin rupes, a rock.
from rock, n. Cf. Old French rocher, stone, from roche, a stone, rock.
from Middle English rokken, also roggen (cf. Old French rocquer), from Anglo-Saxon *roccian (in a gloss) = Danish rokke = Swedish freq. rockera, shake, rock; cf. Old High German rucchen, Middle High German rucken, rücken, German rücken, pull, = Danish rykke = Swedish rycka, pull, = Icelandic rykkja, pull roughly and hastily; from the noun, Old High German ruc (genitive rucch-), Middle High German ruc (genitive ruck-), German ruck, a pull, jolt, jerk, = Swedish ryck = Danish ryk, a pull.
from rock, v.
from Middle English rokke, rocke, rok, from Anglo-Saxon *rocca (not recorded) = Middle Dutch rock, Dutch rok, rokken = Old High German rocco, roccho, rocho, Middle High German rocke, German rocken = Icelandic rokkr = Swedish rock = Danish rok, a distaff (cf. Italian rocca = Spanish rucca = Portuguese roca, a distaff; Old French rocquct, rochct, French rochct, a spinning-wheel; from Teutonic); root unknown.
Perhaps a dial. variant of rough.

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