Gran·ite n. Geol. A crystalline, granular rock, consisting of quartz, feldspar, and mica, and usually of a whitish, grayish, or flesh-red color. It differs from gneiss in not having the mica in planes, and therefore in being destitute of a schistose structure.
Note: ☞ Varieties containing hornblende are common. See also the Note under Mica.
Gneissoid granite, granite in which the mica has traces of a regular arrangement.
Graphic granite, granite consisting of quartz and feldspar without mica, and having the quartz crystals so arranged in the transverse section like oriental characters.
Porphyritic granite, granite containing feldspar in distinct crystals.
Hornblende granite, or Syenitic granite, granite containing hornblende as well as mica, or, according to some authorities hornblende replacing the mica.
Granite ware. (a) A kind of stoneware. (b) A Kind of ironware, coated with an enamel resembling granite.
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Graph·ic Graph·ic·al, a.
1. Of or pertaining to the arts of painting and drawing; of or pertaining to graphics; as, graphic art work. [wns=2]
2. Of or pertaining to the art of writing.
3. Written or engraved; formed of letters or lines.
The finger of God hath left an inscription upon all his works, not graphical, or composed of letters. --Sir T. Browne.
4. Having the faculty of clear, detailed, and impressive description; as, a graphic writer.
5. Well delineated; clearly and vividly described; characterized by, clear, detailed, and impressive description; vivid; evoking lifelike images within the mind; as graphic details of the President's sexual misbehavior; a graphic description of the accident; graphic images of violence. [wns=5]
Syn: -- lifelike, pictorial, vivid.
Graphic algebra, a branch of algebra in which, the properties of equations are treated by the use of curves and straight lines.
Graphic arts, a name given to those fine arts which pertain to the representation on a fiat surface of natural objects; as distinguished from music, etc., and also from sculpture.
Graphic formula. Chem. See under Formula.
Graphic granite. See under Granite.
Graphic method, the method of scientific analysis or investigation, in which the relations or laws involved in tabular numbers are represented to the eye by means of curves or other figures; as the daily changes of weather by means of curves, the abscissas of which represent the hours of the day, and the ordinates the corresponding degrees of temperature.
Graphical statics Math., a branch of statics, in which the magnitude, direction, and position of forces are represented by straight lines
Graphic tellurium. See Sylvanite.
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