a. [ad. L. cavernōsus (in It. cavernoso, Pr. cavernos, F. caverneux), in same sense, f. caverna: see CAVERN and -OUS.]
1. Abounding in caverns.
1447. Bokenham, Seyntys (1835), 108. This hyl is craggy and eke cavernous.
1695. Woodward, Nat. Hist. Earth, III. i. (1723), 158. These Countryes being all Mountainous and Cavernous.
1750. Warburton, Julian, II. vi. 267 (R.). The Town and Temple of Delphi was seated on a bare and cavernous rock.
1853. Phillips, Rivers Yorksh., iii. 111. The mountains are thoroughly cavernous.
2. Full of, or characterized by, cavities or interstices; having a porous texture; hollow in the middle. (Cf. CAVERN sb. 2.)
1597. Lowe, Chirurg. (1634), 116. It [cancer] is hard, unequall, and cavernous, or hollow.
1731. Bailey, Cavernous Ulcer is an Ulcer whose Entrance is straight, and the Bottom broad, wherein are many Holes filled with malignant Matter.
1811. Pinkerton, Petral., II. 403. The cavernous pumice-stone of Lipari.
1851. Carpenter, Man. Phys., 302. The Human Spleen has no true cavernous structure.
1876. T. Hardy, Hand of Ethelberta, I. 118. Till the fire had grown haggard and cavernous.
3. Of the nature of or resembling a cavern; hollow.
1830. Lyell, Princ. Geol., I. 261. Some huge cavernous apertures into which the sea flows.
1865. Ellen C. Clayton, Cruel Fortune, III. 75. His thick eyebrows casting deep shadows on his cavernous eyes.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xxiv. (1854), 193. The cavernous recess of its cliffs.
4. Of or pertaining to a cavern.
1833. I. Taylor, Fanat., iv. 84. This cavernous inspiration.
1839. Bailey, Festus (1852), 142. Cavernous darkness.
Hence Cavernously adv., in a cavernous way.
1849. Blackw. Mag., LXVI. 420. A rock that was cavernously hollow at the base.
1885. G. Meredith, Diana, II. xii. 277. The Fates … were then beginning cavernously their performance of the part of the villain.
