ppl. a. [f. STRATIFY v. + -ED1.] Disposed in strata or layers.
a. Geol. of rocks, a portion of the earth’s crust.
1802. Playfair, Illustr. Huttonian Theory, 65. In the view now given of metallic veins they have been considered as traversing only the stratified parts of the globe.
1813. Bakewell, Introd. Geol. (1815), 29. Stratified mountains or rocks are those which are composed of layers of stone, laid over each other.
1832. De la Beche, Geol. Man. (ed. 2), 35. In the accompanying Table, rocks are first divided into Stratified and Unstratified.
1854. H. Miller, Sch. & Schm., xxi. (1860), 228. The deposit … consists … of alternate beds of limestone, sandstone and stratified clay.
1889. Hardwicke’s Sci.-Gossip, XXV. 69/1. The absence of large erratic blocks in the stratified beds may indicate a period of extreme glaciation, or one absolutely free from ice.
1897. G. P. Merrill, Rocks, etc. 34. The term massive is applied to such igneous rocks as show no sign of bedding or stratification, while limestones, sandstones, and such other rocks as are arranged in more or less parallel layers are described as stratified.
b. in various applications; said, e.g., of incrustations, animal or vegetable tissues, a solid or fluid substance.
1809. J. Kidd, Min., I. 38. The calcareous incrustation … is of a stratified appearance.
1859. Parkinson, Optics (1866), 106. In this way the law of variation of density of a stratified medium may be expressed.
1887. T. W. Shore, Elem. Biol. Vegetable, 13. 1. The thin common cell wall, or middle lamella. 2. The much thicker stratified thickening of the cell wall.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., III. 360. The internal surface [of the œsophagus] is covered with stratified squamous epithelium.
c. Electr. (Cf. STRATIFICATION 2 d.)
1856. Rep. Brit. Assoc., II. 10. On the Stratified Appearance of the Electrical Discharge. By W. R. Grove. Ibid. (1865), II. 15. On the Change of Form and Colour which the Stratified Discharge assumes when a Varied Resistance is introduced in the Circuit of an Extended Series of the Voltaic Battery.
1873. J. C. Maxwell, Electr. & Magnetism, I. 369. On Stratified Conductors. Let a conductor be composed of alternate strata of thickness c and c′ of two substances whose coefficients of conductivity are different.
d. Placed in alternate layers with something else.
1855. J. Scoffern, in Orr’s Circ. Sci., Elem. Chem., 490. The stratified copper leaves … are taken out.
