transition rocks

1 definition found

transition rocks - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Transition \Tran*si"tion\, n. [L. transitio: cf. F. transition.
     See Transient.]
     1. Passage from one place or state to another; charge; as,
        the transition of the weather from hot to cold.
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              There is no death, what seems so is transition.
                                                    --Longfellow.
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     2. (Mus.) A direct or indirect passing from one key to
        another; a modulation.
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     3. (Rhet.) A passing from one subject to another.
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              [He] with transition sweet, new speech resumes.
                                                    --Milton.
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     4. (Biol.) Change from one form to another.
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     Note: This word is sometimes pronounced tran*sish"un; but
           according to Walker, Smart, and most other authorities,
           the customary and preferable pronunciation is
           tran*sizh"un, although this latter mode violates
           analogy. Other authorities say tran*zish"un.
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     Transition rocks (Geol.), a term formerly applied to the
        lowest uncrystalline stratified rocks (graywacke) supposed
        to contain no fossils, and so called because thought to
        have been formed when the earth was passing from an
        uninhabitable to a habitable state.
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