rock crystal


noun
  1. transparent quartz, especially when colorless.

Origin of rock crystal

1
First recorded in 1660–70

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use rock crystal in a sentence

  • There was a little table at hand; on it stood a rock-crystal goblet and a silver cooler filled with snow-water and rose sherbet.

    God Wills It! | William Stearns Davis
  • Blanik is the name of a mountain in Bohemia, beneath which are lofty halls whose walls are entirely fashioned of rock-crystal.

    The Science of Fairy Tales | Edwin Sidney Hartland
  • It abounds in most substances which are hard enough to strike fire with steel, as flint, rock crystal, and most precious stones.

  • Its transparency is scarcely less than that of water or of rock crystal, and devoid of colour.

    Treatise on Light | Christiaan Huygens
  • rock crystal grows ordinarily in hexagonal bars, and diamonds are found which occur with a square point and polished surfaces.

    Treatise on Light | Christiaan Huygens

British Dictionary definitions for rock crystal

rock crystal

noun
  1. a pure transparent colourless quartz, used in electronic and optical equipment. Formula: SiO 2

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012