Definition of Detritus

1. Noun. The remains of something that has been destroyed or broken up.

Exact synonyms: Debris, Dust, Junk, Rubble
Generic synonyms: Rubbish, Scrap, Trash
Specialized synonyms: Slack
Derivative terms: Dust, Junk

2. Noun. Loose material (stone fragments and silt etc) that is worn away from rocks.
Generic synonyms: Material, Stuff

Definition of Detritus

1. n. A mass of substances worn off from solid bodies by attrition, and reduced to small portions; as, diluvial detritus.

Definition of Detritus

1. Noun. (context: countable chiefly geological) pieces of rock broken off by ice, glacier, or erosion. ¹

2. Noun. (biology) Organic waste material from decomposing dead plants or animals. ¹

3. Noun. debris or fragments of disintegrated material ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Detritus

1. particles of rock [n DETRITUS] : DETRITAL [adj]

Medical Definition of Detritus

1. Undissolved organic or inorganic matter resulting from the decomposition of parent material. (09 Oct 1997)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Detritus

detribalizes
detribalizing
detriment
detrimental
detrimentally
detrimentals
detriments
detrita
detrital
detrition
detritions
detritivore
detritivores
detritivorous
detritral
detritus (current term)
detrivore
detrivores
detrude
detruded
detrudes
detruding
detruncate
detruncated
detruncates
detruncating
detruncation
detrusion
detrusions
detrusor

Literary usage of Detritus

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. A Geological Manual by Henry Thomas De La Beche (1833)
"Delivery of detritus into the Sea. We have seen above, that from the action of the ... Local circumstances arrest a considerable portion of this detritus; ..."

2. How to Observe: Geology by Henry Thomas De La Beche (1836)
"Water which may be thus procured should be carefully bottled, and sufficient quantities should be obtained to detect the small amount of detritus which ..."

3. A Manual of Clinical Diagnosis by Means of Microscopical and Chemical by Charles Edmund Simon (1904)
"Fatty and albuminous detritus in variable ann>m,! may be observed in every specimen of pus, and increase* with t!.. length of time it has been confined ..."

4. Practical Geology and Mineralogy: With Instructions for the Qualitative by Joshua Trimmer (1842)
"Deposit of detritus in the Sea. Such, then, is the action of running water on the land, constantly tending to reduce the inequalities of its channel to a ..."

5. Elements of Chemical and Physical Geology by Gustav Bischof (1859)
"The large masses of detritus carried down by a stream so rapid, and containing such a body of water as the Aar, are discharged into the lake of Brienz, ..."

6. Researches in Theoretical Geology by Henry Thomas De La Beche (1837)
"Rivers in which a large amount of finely comminuted detritus is ... The very detritus itself is likely to be acted on by the water in which it is suspended, ..."

7. A Manual of clinical diagnosis by means of microscopic and chemical methods by Charles Edmund Simon (1907)
"... altogether of granular and fatty detritus, while in liver abscesses due to other causes the leukocytes usually present a fairly normal appearance. ..."

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