▪ I. volcano, n.
(vɒlˈkeɪnəʊ)
Also 7–9 vulcano. Pl. volcanoes (7–9 -os, -o's).
[a. It. volcano (Florio, 1598), vulcano (Florio, 1611):—L. Vol-, Vulcānum, acc. of Volcānus Vulcan. Cf. volcan.]
1. a. Physiogr. A more or less conical hill or mountain, composed wholly or chiefly of discharged matter, communicating with the interior of the globe by a funnel or crater, from which in periods of activity steam, gases, ashes, rocks, and freq. streams of molten materials are ejected.
See also mud-, pseudo-volcano s.v. mud n. 5, pseudo- 2.
| α 1613 Purchas Pilgr. viii. xiv. 686 A Vulcano or flaming hill, the fire whereof may be seene..aboue 100 miles. 1663 J. Spencer Prodigies (1665) 85 They regarded those mighty Vulcanos as the Courts of Pluto. 1710 Palmer Proverbs 25 He that would needs peep into mount Vesuvius, and search the depth of its vulcano's. 1788 Gibbon Decl. & F. xxxix. IV. 42 The vulcano of Lipari, one of the flaming mouths of the infernal world. 1830 W. Taylor Hist. Surv. Germ. Poetry II. 467 Unusual events, earthquakes, inundations, and vulcanoes altered the face of the planet. |
| β 1690 T. Burnet Theory Earth II. 55 The burning mountains or volcano's of the earth. 1692 Bentley Boyle Lect. 271 The seeds of subterraneous minerals..sometimes cause earthquakes and furious eruptions of volcano's. 1725 De Foe Voy. round World ii. 66 A volcano, or burning vent among the hills. 1742 Young Nt. Th. iii. 220 Volcano's bellow ere they disembogue. 1773 Brydone Tour Sicily ii. (1809) 16 Of all the volcanoes we read of, Strombolo seems to be the only one that burns without ceasing. 1781 Cowper Heroism 85 Some heav'n-protected isle, Where no volcano pours his fiery flood. 1868 Lockyer Elem. Astron. §221 Hill country [in the moon] broken up in the most tremendous manner by volcanoes of all sizes. 1877 Huxley Physiogr. 198 Submarine volcanoes occasionally give rise to new land. |
| fig. 1856 Emerson Eng. Traits xiv. Literature Wks. (Bohn) II. 113 The island is a roaring volcano of fate, of material values,..glutted markets, and low prices. 1898 D. C. Murray Tales 207 You're going to offer your old second-hand volcano of a heart to that fresh innocence? |
b. An eruption or discharge of flame.
| 1716–20 Lett. Mist's Jrnl. (1722) I. 65 The very Eruptions, or Vulcano's of Flame, which..are observed to burst out from it on all Sides. |
c. transf. (See quots.)
| 1784 Cowper Task iii. 737 The eclipse That metropolitan volcano's [sc. chimneys] make, Whose Stygian throats breathe darkness all day long. 1890 Cent. Dict., Fizgig, a firework, made of damp powder, which makes a hissing or fizzing noise when ignited; in one form called by boys a volcano. |
2. fig. a. A violent feeling or passion, esp. one in a suppressed state.
| 1697 Sir T. P. Blount Ess. 143 Blow him into a Flame, and you may see Vulcano's, Hurricans and Borasco's in him. 1852 Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. ii, A whole volcano of bitter feelings burned in his bosom, and sent streams of fire through his veins. 1872 Black Adv. Phaeton xxv. 352 Nursing this volcano of wrath in his breast. 1883 Meredith Woods of Westermain iii, Love, the great volcano, flings Fires of lower Earth to sky. |
b. A state of things liable to burst out violently at some time, esp. in phr. to sit on a volcano and varr.
| 1853 C. Brontë Villette ix, On the edge of a moral volcano that rumbled under my feet. 1890 Spectator 10 May, An outburst of the social volcano which some think exists below modern society. [1908 L. Mitchell New York Idea i. 32, I feel as if we were all taking tea on the slope of a volcano.] 1909 Galsworthy Silver Box i. iii. 16 You're sitting upon a volcano, John. 1930 G. B. Shaw Apple Cart i. 26 The more I see of the sort of prosperity that comes of leaving our vital industries to big business men as long as they keep your constituents quiet with high wages, the more I feel as if I were sitting on a volcano. 1954 J. Whiting Marching Song ii. 42 Is it a volcano I'm sitting on and not, as I'd supposed, a dung-hill? 1983 Listener 27 Jan. 28/3 As in Ragtime, he exposes to white, middle-class America the nature of the volcano (racism; social injustice; competition; aggression) on which it blithely sits. |
3. attrib., as volcano-fire, volcano immortality, volcano land, volcano-mountain, etc.; volcano rabbit, a small, dark brown rabbit, Romerolagus diazi, found only in the mountains of central Mexico and very similar to the pika, having short ears and no tail; volcano-ship, a kind of fire-ship.
| 1772–84 Cook's Voy. (1790) VI. 2174 The next, a volcano-mountain, may readily be known by the smoke issuing from the top. 1804 Wolcot (P. Pindar) Ep. to Ld. Mayor Wks. 1812 V. 208 A great city orator..and elève of John Wilkes, Of volcano immortality. 1821 Shelley Hellas 589 Like mountain-twins that from each other's veins Catch the volcano-fire and earthquake-spasm. 1845 Bailey Festus (ed. 2) 133 As these scenes, Fire-fountains, and volcano-utterances,..evince. 1860 Motley Netherl. xiii. II. 157 York..had distinguished himself..by..having sprung on board the burning volcano-ship at the seige of Antwerp. 1880 Meredith Tragic Com. (1881) 62, I have seen the other face of it..It is the old volcano land. 1969 J. Fisher et al. Red Bk. 54/2 The volcano rabbit is covered with fur, which is a uniform dark brown on its back and dark brownish-grey beneath. 1972 G. Durrell Catch me a Colobus ix. 173 The Volcano rabbit lives at a very high altitude..in the pine forests. |
▪ II. volˈcano, v. rare.
[f. prec.]
a. trans. To attack (a person) in a manner suggestive of a volcano. b. intr. To blaze or belch fire like a volcano.
| 1866 Meredith Vittoria xxix, Manœuvre your cigar. The plan is, to give half-a-dozen bright puffs, and..when you see an Italian head, volcano him like fury. 1878 Harper's Mag. Feb. 432 The great cannon volcanoing through all. |