silex1
(ˈsaɪlɛks)
[L. silex flint. So F. silex.]
Flint, silica.
| a 1592 Greene Orpharion Wks. (Grosart) XII. 68 The precious stone Silex is full of secret vertue. |
| 1753 Chambers' Cycl. Suppl., Silex, flint, in natural history, the name of a genus of semi-pellucid stones [etc.]. 1794 Sullivan View Nat. I. 433 Most of the ambiguous stones..contain, besides portions of calcareous and argillaceous earths, certain portions of the silex also. 1805 Phil. Trans. XCV. 231 If the stone contain silex, this earth will be separated in the process of solution and evaporation. 1840 J. Buel Farmer's Companion 35 Silex is apparent in the epidermis of Indian corn, wheat, oats, and the hollow grasses. 1878 Huxley Physiogr. xvi. 271 It would..be a highly fossiliferous limestone with more or less silex. |
| attrib. 1887 Daily News 20 June 2/6 Valuable seams of hematite ore and silex pottery clay. 1895 Outing XXVI. 36/1 The collection of silex grains that for courtesy we called the road. |