a. [ad. Gr. λιθοειδ-ής, f. λίθος stone: see -OID.] Of the nature or structure of stone.
1841. W. Spalding, Italy & It. Isl., III. 299. A capping of lithoid tuff rising about a hundred feet.
1885. A. Geikie, Text-bk. Geol. (ed. 2), 108. By the progressive development of crystallites or crystals during the cooling and consolidation of a molten rock a glass loses its vitreous character and becomes lithoid; in other words, undergoes devitrification.
So Lithoidal a., in the same sense.
1833. Lyell, Princ. Geol., III. 124. At a greater depth the mass assumes a more lithoidal structure.
1852. Th. Ross, trans. Humboldt’s Trav., I. ii. 93. Lithoidal lavas.
