sandstone
(ˈsændstəʊn)
[f. sand n.2 + stone n.]
A rock composed of consolidated sand. Old and New Red Sandstone: two series of British rocks lying respectively below and above the carboniferous.
| 1668 Charleton Onomast. 241 Saxum Arenarium, Sand⁓stone. 1761 A. Catcott Deluge iii. (1768) 249 A red Sand-stone. 1820 Fosbrooke in Q. Jrnl. Sci., Lit. & Arts IX. xvii. 45 Old red sandstone. 1830 Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 263 Fair Island, said to be composed of sandstone with high perpendicular cliffs. 1842 H. Miller O.R. Sandst. xi. (ed. 2) 235 We enter on a district of New Red Sandstone. 1855 Longfellow Hiaw. iv. 261 There the ancient Arrow-maker Made his arrow-heads of sandstone. 1855 J. Phillips Man. Geol. 65 Sandstones are essentially littoral and shallow sea formations. 1879 Hare B'ness Bunsen II. viii. 437 Low round-headed arches of red sandstone. |
| attrib. 1796 Kirwan Elem. Min. (ed. 2) I. 358 Sandstone Porphyry. 1823 P. Nicholson Pract. Build. 287 A sandstone quarry. 1877 Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 127 Sandstone-schist. |