Definitions

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

  • noun A geologic process in which the oceanic crust of the edge of a tectonic plate is thrust over the continental crust of the edge of another, adjacent plate.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act of drawing over, as a covering.

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

  • noun obsolete The act of drawing or laying over, as a covering.

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

  • noun obsolete The act of drawing or laying over, as a covering.
  • noun An autopsy.
  • noun geology The overthrusting of continental crust by oceanic crust or rocks from the mantle, such that the oceanic crust is thrust onto the continental crust, as occurs at a convergent plate boundary when the continental crust is caught in a subduction zone.

Etymologies

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

[Latin obductiō, obductiōn-, act of covering or enveloping, from obductus, past participle of obdūcere, to draw forward, cover over : ob-, toward, before; see ob– + dūcere, to lead, draw; see deuk- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin obductio.

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Examples

  • You can tell there has been obduction of ocean crust.

    Road Map « Climate Audit 2005

  • The complex conditions for its establishment are the collective instruments in getting evidence; the individual conditions are to be established by means of the individual sources of evidence -- testimony of witnesses, examination of the premises, obduction, protocol, etc.

    Criminal Psychology: a manual for judges, practitioners, and students 1911

  • During the subsequent obduction I saw most clearly how the corpse made all kinds of movements, and even after the section, during the dictation of the protocol, my imagination still seemed to see the corpse moving a hand or a foot.

    Criminal Psychology: a manual for judges, practitioners, and students 1911

  • Williams, include oceanic crust and mantle rock exposed by the obduction process of plate tectonics, as well as sedimentary rock formed during the Ordovician, Precambrian granite and

    WN.com - Business News 2010

  • It produces rapid global movement of continental platforms and rapid subduction, obduction, overfolding thin lithosphere platforms.

    California Literary Review 2009

  • It produces rapid global movement of continental platforms and rapid subduction, obduction, overfolding thin lithosphere platforms.

    California Literary Review 2009

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  • In addition, obduction means an instance of covering or enveloping (OED).

    February 13, 2012