Definitions

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

  • adjective Shaped like a bunch of grapes. Used especially of mineral formations.

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

  • adjective Having the form of a bunch of grapes.

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

  • adjective resembling a cluster of grapes in form

Etymologies

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

[From Greek botruoeidēs : botrus, bunch of grapes + -oeidēs, -oid.]

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Examples

  • He has a face of that rubicund, knobby type I have heard an indignant mineralogist speak of as botryoidal, and about it waves a quantity of disorderly blond hair.

    A Modern Utopia Herbert George 2006

  • He has a face of that rubicund, knobby type I have heard an indignant mineralogist speak of as botryoidal, and about it waves a quantity of disorderly blond hair.

    A Modern Utopia 1906

  • Labradorite, Charoite, botryoidal chalcedony, and rocs, adn rocs, adn uh, smammie, uze gittin BORIN agin… sari….. and dey maeks handii howz-wholed wepenz.. sew dere, thwak.

    Ur daiz…dey is numbrd - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger? 2008

  • Not the least curious part of this outcrop is the black thread of iron silicate which, broken in places, subtends it to the east: some specimens have geodes yielding brown powder, and venal cavities lined with botryoidal quartz of amethystine tinge.

    The Land of Midian 2003

  • A translucent botryoidal calamine banded with blue and green is found at Laurion in Greece, and has sometimes been cut and polished for small ornaments such as brooches.

    Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4 "Bulgaria" to "Calgary" Various

  • The sixth is the "hyalite," which has but a glassy or vitreous lustre, and is found almost exclusively in the form of globules, or clusters of globules, somewhat after the form and size of bunches of grapes; hence the name "botryoidal" is often applied to this variety.

    The Chemistry, Properties and Tests of Precious Stones John Mastin

  • But the heavy, true alluvial gold, in great pure masses, mammillary, or botryoidal (like a bunch of grapes) in shape, have assuredly been formed by accretion on some metallic base, from gold salts in solution, probably chloride, but possibly sulphide.

    Getting Gold: a practical treatise for prospectors, miners and students

  • It consists of a connective tissue and muscular coating, with an internal soft matrix much resembling botryoidal tissue, traversed by fibrous trabeculne (= beams, planks) containing blood-vessels, and the whole organ is gorged with blood, particularly after meals.

    Text Book of Biology, Part 1: Vertebrata 1906

  • They occur in great numbers in a tissue called, botryoidal tissue (Figure XIV.), which occurs especially in masses and patches along the course of the alimentary canal, in its walls.

    Text Book of Biology, Part 1: Vertebrata 1906

  • The matrix of botryoidal tissue is a network of stretched and hollowed connective tissue cells -- it is not a secretion, as cartilage matrix appears to be.

    Text Book of Biology, Part 1: Vertebrata 1906

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