erode
Definitions
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WordNet 3.6
- v erode remove soil or rock "Rain eroded the terraces"
- v erode become ground down or deteriorate "Her confidence eroded"
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Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
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- Erode To eat into or away; to corrode; as, canker erodes the flesh. "The blood . . . erodes the vessels.""The smaller charge is more apt to . . . erode the gun."
- Erode (Geol. & Phys. Geog) To produce by erosion, or wearing away; as, glaciers erodeU-shaped valleys.
- Erode to reduce or lessen as if by eroding; as, a politician's base of support is eroded by evidence of corruption; the buying power of the dollar is eroded by inflation.
- Erode (Geol. & Phys. Geog) To wear away; as, streams and glaciers erode the land.
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Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
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- erode To gnaw or eat into or away; corrode.
- erode Hence To wear away, as if by gnawing: specifically used in geology of the action of water, etc., in wearing down the earth's surface.
- erode To become worn away.
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Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
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- v.t Erode e-rōd′ to eat away: to wear away
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Quotations
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“All social rules and all relations between individuals are eroded by a cash economy, avarice drags Pluto himself out of the bowels of the earth.” -
“Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures.”
Etymology
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
L. erodere, erosum,; e, out + rodere, to gnaw. See Rodent
Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
L. e, out, rodĕre, rosum, to gnaw.
Usage
In literature:
The gills are adnexed, subdistant, white, becoming grayish, edges more or less eroded.
"The Mushroom, Edible and Otherwise" by M. E. Hard
We have had stately, eroded hills, and broad, fertile bottoms, hemming us in all day, and marvelous ox-bows in the erratic stream.
"Afloat on the Ohio" by Reuben Gold Thwaites
The area up-stream from the culvert will not erode below the level of the top of the box at the inlet end.
"American Rural Highways" by T. R. Agg
At its toe water had leaped down and eroded a slight groove in the solid rock.
"A Mountain Boyhood" by Joe Mills
Rock outcroppings were everywhere, but all were eroded and in places polished smooth as glass.
"The Long Voyage" by Carl Richard Jacobi
Eroded walls; niches and tiny gullies; crevices and an arching dome high overhead.
"Astounding Stories of Super-Science, November, 1930" by Various
The eroded city walls rose above them, occupied more and more of the sky.
"Sjambak" by John Holbrook Vance
In private cold, my face burns a tallow white, toes flake in frostbite or erode every sensation.
"Eyeshine" by Paul Cameron Brown
But he knew that they were only a stopgap, only a temporarily shoring of a constantly-eroding dam.
"The Dueling Machine" by Benjamin William Bova
There were traces of inscription on it, but eroded to illegibility.
"Where the World is Quiet" by Henry Kuttner
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In poetry:
Years like moths
erode internal organs
hanging or falling
in a spoiled closet.
erode internal organs
hanging or falling
in a spoiled closet.
"An Old Woman" by Mina Loy
And now upstairs the lint that crusts the sills
Erodes in a windy shift along the floor.
Shall now her touselled eyes rinse out the haze
Of winter sprawled like a waif outside the door?
Erodes in a windy shift along the floor.
Shall now her touselled eyes rinse out the haze
Of winter sprawled like a waif outside the door?
"Obituary" by Allen Tate
Since we agreed to let the road between us
Fall to disuse,
And bricked our gates up, planted trees to screen us,
And turned all time's eroding agents loose,
Silence, and space, and strangers - our neglect
Has not had much effect.
Fall to disuse,
And bricked our gates up, planted trees to screen us,
And turned all time's eroding agents loose,
Silence, and space, and strangers - our neglect
Has not had much effect.
"No Road" by Philip Larkin
In news:
Jefferson Parish committed to buying out homeowners on section of eroding Bonnabel Canal.
Eroding Alaska Village Newtok Hits Snag with Relocation to Mertarvik.
Our Rights are Eroding Or so We are Told.
Mitt Romney's economic lead over President Obama is eroding , according to poll.
Why Rick Santorum's once-generous lead in Wisconsin is eroding .
Developer interest in Android slowly eroding .
Technology eroding our sense of community.
Ohio building with ties to Wright brothers eroding .
Trustees' support for Paterno eroding .
Support for Paterno eroding , says high-ranking Penn State official.
App sandboxing risks eroding the Mac's identity.
Official tells AP that support for Paterno eroding .
African-American Middle Class Eroding As Unemployment Rate Soars.
California can relieve packed prisons without eroding safety.
How Rising Gas Prices Are Eroding the American Dream.
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In science:
The exponential behavior of Eq. (18) implies that there is a unique “melting rate” at which the cluster boundaries get eroded as H increases and that the process is otherwise similar for all ∆.
Susceptibility and Percolation in 2D Random Field Ising Magnets
The binary orbital decay heats the surrounding stars, eroding a preexisting stellar cusp ∝ r−2 .
The formation of galaxy stellar cores by the hierarchical merging of supermassive black holes
More massive halos have more massive nuclear BHs and experience more merging events than less massive galaxies: hence they suffer more from the eroding action of binary SMBHs and have larger cores.
The formation of galaxy stellar cores by the hierarchical merging of supermassive black holes
In a fast shock, the grain material can be eroded by the process of “sputtering”, where individual atoms or ions from the gas collide with the grain, occasionally ejecting one of the grain atoms.
Astrophysics of Dust in Cold Clouds
These stars make up the core of satellites whose orbits are eroded, circularized, and brought into the plane of the galaxy before being disrupted.
The Hierarchical Formation of the Galactic Disk
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