sed·i·ment

(sĕd′ə-mənt)

1. Material that settles to the bottom of a liquid; lees.

2. Solid fragments of inorganic or organic material that come from the weathering of rock and are carried and deposited by wind, water, or ice.

[Latin sedimentum, act of settling, from sedēre, to sit, settle; see sed- in Indo-European roots.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

sediment

(ˈsɛdɪmənt)

1. matter that settles to the bottom of a liquid

2. (Geological Science) material that has been deposited from water, ice, or wind

[C16: from Latin sedimentum a settling, from sedēre to sit]

sedimentous adj

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

sed•i•ment

(ˈsɛd ə mənt)

n.

1. the matter that settles to the bottom of a liquid; lees; dregs.

2. Geol. mineral or organic matter deposited by water, air, or ice.

[1540–50; < Latin sedimentum=sedi- (comb. form of sedēre to sit, settle) + -mentum -ment]

sed`i•men′tous, adj.

sed·i·ment

(sĕd′ə-mənt)

1. Geology Silt, sand, rocks, fossils, and other matter carried and deposited by water, wind, or ice.

2. Chemistry Particles of solid matter that settle out of a suspension to the bottom of the liquid.

The American Heritage® Student Science Dictionary, Second Edition. Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

sediment

decant - Means to pour wine, taking pains not to disturb any sediment at the bottom; decant comes from Latin de- and canthus, "angular lip of a jug."
allogenic, allochthonous - Geological material that has been transported and then accumulates elsewhere is allochthonous, and sediment carried by a river is allogenic.
lithification - The process of compaction of sediment into stone.
swarve - To choke with sediment.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	sediment - matter that has been deposited by some natural process deposit matter - that which has mass and occupies space; "physicists study both the nature of matter and the forces which govern it" alluvial deposit, alluvial sediment, alluvium, alluvion - clay or silt or gravel carried by rushing streams and deposited where the stream slows down dregs, settlings - sediment that has settled at the bottom of a liquid lees - the sediment from fermentation of an alcoholic beverage lick, salt lick - a salt deposit that animals regularly lick evaporite - the sediment that is left after the evaporation of seawater
Verb	1.	sediment - deposit as a sediment posit, situate, deposit, fix - put (something somewhere) firmly; "She posited her hand on his shoulder"; "deposit the suitcase on the bench"; "fix your eyes on this spot" sediment - settle as sediment
	2.	sediment - settle as sediment settle, settle down - settle into a position, usually on a surface or ground; "dust settled on the roofs" sediment - deposit as a sediment

sediment

noun dregs, grounds, residue, lees, deposit, precipitate, settlings ocean sediments

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

sediment

noun

Matter that settles on a bottom or collects on a surface by a natural process:

deposit, dreg (often used in plural), lees, precipitate, precipitation.

Translations

ثُفْل

usazenina

aflejringbundfald

botnfall

nogulsnes

sediment

[ˈsedɪmənt] N (in liquids, boiler) → sedimento m, poso m (Geol) → sedimento m

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

sediment

[ˈsɛdɪmənt] n → sédiment m, dépôt m

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

sediment

n → (Boden)satz m; (in river) → Ablagerung f; (in chemical solution) → Niederschlag m, → Sediment nt

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

sediment

[ˈsɛdɪmənt] n (in liquids, boiler) → deposito, fondo (Geol) → sedimento

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

sediment

(ˈsedimənt) noun

the material that settles at the bottom of a liquid. Her feet sank into the sediment on the river bed.

sed·i·ment

n. sedimento, materia que se deposita en el fondo de un líquido.

sediment

n sedimento

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

It will be much more convenient to discuss this question in the chapter on the Imperfection of the geological record; and I will here only state that I believe the answer mainly lies in the record being incomparably less perfect than is generally supposed; the imperfection of the record being chiefly due to organic beings not inhabiting profound depths of the sea, and to their remains being embedded and preserved to a future age only in masses of sediment sufficiently thick and extensive to withstand an enormous amount of future degradation; and such fossiliferous masses can be accumulated only where much sediment is deposited on the shallow bed of the sea, whilst it slowly subsides.

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All I know about the matter is, that one day Marheyo in my presence poured out the last drop from his huge calabash, and I observed at the bottom of the vessel a small quantity of gravelly sediment very much resembling our common sand.

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The doctor then slowly poured some drops of the lemonade from the decanter into the cup, and in an instant a light cloudy sediment began to form at the bottom of the cup; this sediment first took a blue shade, then from the color of sapphire it passed to that of opal, and from opal to emerald.

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From the dimly-lighted passages of the court, the last sediment of the human stew that had been boiling there all day, was straining off, when Doctor Manette, Lucie Manette, his daughter, Mr.

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Presently they came to a place where a little stream of water, trickling over a ledge and carrying a limestone sediment with it, had, in the slow-dragging ages, formed a laced and ruffled Niagara in gleaming and imperishable stone.

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This is the port wine, ma'am, that the board ordered for the infirmary; real, fresh, genuine port wine; only out of the cask this forenoon; clear as a bell, and no sediment!'

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The bottom of the cup has a muddy sediment in it half an inch deep.

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Considering the enormous power of denudation which the sea possesses, as shown by numberless facts, it is not probable that a sedimentary deposit, when being upraised, could pass through the ordeal of the beach, so as to be preserved in sufficient masses to last to a distant period, without it were originally of wide extent and of considerable thickness: now it is impossible on a moderately shallow bottom, which alone is favourable to most living creatures, that a thick and widely extended covering of sediment could be spread out, without the bottom sank down to receive the successive layers.

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I had withdrawn so far within the great ocean of solitude, into which the rivers of society empty, that for the most part, so far as my needs were concerned, only the finest sediment was deposited around me.

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Inglethorp's medicine was always extremely careful not to shake the bottle, but to leave the sediment at the bottom of it undisturbed.

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Notwithstanding her jealousy of the Vincys and of Mary Garth, there remained as the nethermost sediment in her mental shallows a persuasion that her brother Peter Featherstone could never leave his chief property away from his blood-relations:--else, why had the Almighty carried off his two wives both childless, after he had gained so much by manganese and things, turning up when nobody expected it?--and why was there a Lowick parish church, and the Waules and Powderells all sit ting in the same pew for generations, and the Featherstone pew next to them, if, the Sunday after her brother Peter's death, everybody was to know that the property was gone out of the family?

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Becky, too, knew some ladies here and there--French widows, dubious Italian countesses, whose husbands had treated them ill--faugh--what shall we say, we who have moved among some of the finest company of Vanity Fair, of this refuse and sediment of rascals?

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