Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Rock composed of sharp-angled fragments embedded in a fine-grained matrix.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In geology, a conglomerate in which the fragments, instead of being rounded or water-worn, are angular.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Geol.) A rock composed of angular fragments either of the same mineral or of different minerals, etc., united by a cement, and commonly presenting a variety of colors.
  • noun a breccia containing bones, usually fragmentary.
  • noun a breccia containing coins.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun geology A rock composed of angular fragments in a matrix that may be of a similar or a different material.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a rudaceous rock consisting of sharp fragments embedded in clay or sand

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Italian, of Germanic origin; see bhreg- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Italian breccia, from Germanic.

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Examples

  • A breccia is a rock made up of angular pebbles or fragments of other rocks.

    Roman Mosaics Or, Studies in Rome and Its Neighbourhood Hugh Macmillan

  • It may also be called a breccia, for it is composed of black fragments, larger or smaller, derived from other rocks, whose angular shape indicates that they have not travelled far from the spots where they occur.

    Roman Mosaics Or, Studies in Rome and Its Neighbourhood Hugh Macmillan

  • Many beds of siliceous gravel are cemented together by a siliceous cement, and are called breccia; as the plumb-pudding stones of

    The Botanic Garden A Poem in Two Parts. Part 1: the Economy of Vegetation Erasmus Darwin 1766

  • Uranium mining in the geologic formations known as breccia pipes that abound in the area around the Grand Canyon did occur during the 1980s but diminished as the prices dropped.

    AlterNet.org Main RSS Feed SolveClimate David Levitan 2010

  • Uranium mining in the geologic formations known as breccia pipes that abound in the area around the Grand Canyon did occur during the 1980s but diminished as the prices dropped.

    AlterNet.org Main RSS Feed SolveClimate David Levitan 2010

  • Squeezing through the narrow walls -- some are smooth marble, others multicolored rock fragments called breccia that appear to be cemented together -- the forces that carve and polish Mosaic Canyon with each passing storm are easy to appreciate.

    MercedSun-Star.com: front 2010

  • In some cases rare stone types, such as breccia corallina, cipollino marina and some as yet unidentified stone types were used.

    Interactive Dig Sagalassos - Stone Report 1 2003

  • I am afraid that -- what between squeezing and heating -- she would flatten us all out into phosphatic fossils, about an inch thick; and turn Winchester city into a "breccia" which would puzzle geologists a hundred thousand years hence.

    Madam How and Lady Why Charles Kingsley 1847

  • As the San Francisco Chronicle reports: Steve Squyres, a Cornell astronomer and the rover's chief scientist, said Thursday that the rugged rock is a form of breccia, jumbled fragments of minerals cemented together and apparently thrown up from beneath the planet's surface by some monstrous impact that happened millions - or perhaps billions - of years ago.

    James M. Gentile: Innovations In Space Technology Are Still Key James M. Gentile 2011

  • As the San Francisco Chronicle reports: Steve Squyres, a Cornell astronomer and the rover's chief scientist, said Thursday that the rugged rock is a form of breccia, jumbled fragments of minerals cemented together and apparently thrown up from beneath the planet's surface by some monstrous impact that happened millions - or perhaps billions - of years ago.

    James M. Gentile: Innovations In Space Technology Are Still Key James M. Gentile 2011

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