Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In geology, the lower division of the Jurassic.

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

  • noun (Geol.) The lowest of the three divisions of the Jurassic period; a name given in England and Europe to a series of marine limestones underlying the Oölite. See the Chart of geology.

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

  • noun A type of blue limestone present in parts of southern England.
  • noun geology A stratigraphic group from the lower Jurassic period, consisting of thin layers of blue limestone.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Originally dialectal, from Old French liois ("compact limestone") (French liais).

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Examples

  • The water contains common salt, sulphates of magnesia and soda, and carbonate of lime, and rises in a deep valley at the junction of granite and lias, which is, however, concealed for some way by an immense mass of detritus, through which the spring forces itself.

    The South of France—East Half C. B. Black

  • The correctness of this theory he shortly after confirmed by observations of the strata in two parallel valleys, the "red ground," "lias," and "freestone" or "oolite," being found to come down in an eastern direction, and to sink below the level, yielding place to the next in succession.

    Self help; with illustrations of conduct and perseverance Samuel Smiles 1858

  • In the Zagorohoria, lodging options include the Aristi Mountain Resort (aristi.gr) and the Papaevangelou guesthouse, (papaevangelou.gr); in Metsovo, try the Katogi Hotel and Winery (katogihotel.gr); in Lia, the Xenona Liaa Inn (lias.gr).

    Insiders' guide to Greece 2011

  • In the Zagorohoria, lodging options include the Aristi Mountain Resort (aristi.gr) and the Papaevangelou guesthouse, (papaevangelou.gr); in Metsovo, try the Katogi Hotel and Winery (katogihotel.gr); in Lia, the Xenona Liaa Inn (lias.gr).

    Insiders' guide to Greece 2011

  • These are the biggest bunch of thieves and lias ever witnessed in history, a DISGRACE to our heritage, Constitution and country!

    Think Progress » Bush Meets Privately With Think Tank Promoting Military Strike On Iran 2006

  • They will lias [SIC] with the queen and with Prince Charles and with Prince Harry himself, who at this point in time will probably be given a rude awakening in Helmand province.

    CNN Transcript Feb 28, 2008 2008

  • There are families of fishes whose type of construction has persisted all the way from the carboniferous rock right up to the cretaceous; and others which have lasted through almost the whole range of the secondary rocks, and from the lias to the older tertiaries.

    Essays 2007

  • Not only is this true, but the subdivisions of each formation exhibit new species characteristic of, and found only in, them; and, in many cases, as in the lias for example, the separate beds of these subdivisions are distinguished by well-marked and peculiar forms of life.

    Essays 2007

  • Our existing ‘Nautilus’ has its representative species in every great formation, from the oldest to the newest; and ‘Loligo’, the squid of modern seas, appears in the lias, or at the bottom of the mesozoic series, in a form, at most, specifically different from its living congeners.

    Essays 2007

  • And above the trees, in shelving distance, rise the crests of upland, a soft gray lias, where orchards thrive, and greensward strokes down the rigor of the rocks, and quick rills lace the bosom of the slope with tags of twisted silver.

    Springhaven Richard Doddridge 2004

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