Geol. Also löss, erron. loëss. [a. Ger. dial. lösz.] A deposit of fine yellowish-grey loam found in the valley of the Rhine and of other large rivers.
1833. Lyell, Princ. Geol., III. 151. There is a remarkable alluvium filled with land-shells of recent species … which we may refer to the newer Pliocene era. This deposit is provincially termed ‘Loess.’
1873. J. Geikie, Gt. Ice Age, xxxii. 453. Underneath the vast deposits of löss belonging to the last cold period.
1879. Lubbock, Sci. Lect., v. 141. The antiquities … are usually found in beds of gravel and loam, or, as it is technically called, ‘loëss.’
attrib. 1882. R. K. Douglas, China, vi. 135. The huge tract of loess country in northern China.
