[trip-uh-lee] 
| 1. | Also, Trip⋅o⋅li⋅ta⋅ni⋅a [trip-uh-li-tey-nee-uh, -teyn-yuh; It. tree-paw-lee-tah-nyah] . one of the former Barbary States of N Africa: later a province of Turkey; now a part of Libya. |
| 2. | a seaport in and the capital of Libya, in the NW part. 551,477. |
| 3. | a seaport in N Lebanon, on the Mediterranean. 175,000. |
| 4. | (lowercase ) any of several siliceous substances, as rottenstone and infusorial earth, used chiefly in polishing. |
[tri-pol-i-tn] , noun, adjective | trip·o·li (trĭp'ə-lē) n. pl. trip·o·lis A porous, lightweight, siliceous sedimentary rock composed of the shells of diatoms or radiolarians or of finely weathered chert, used as an abrasive and a polish. [French, probably after Tripoli, Lebanon.] |
Trip·o·li (trĭp'ə-lē)
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Capital of Libya and the largest city in the country, located in northwestern Libya.
Note: The city dates back to the seventh century b.c.
Note: United States war planes attacked Tripoli in 1986 in retaliation for Libyan terrorist acts against American citizens.
tripoli
porous, friable, microcrystalline siliceous rock of sedimentary origin that is composed chiefly of chalcedony and microcrystalline quartz. Although the name tripoli was chosen because of the rock's superficial resemblance to tripolite, a diatomite or from Tripolitania region, Libya, the term does not include diatomite, or hardened diatomaceous earth. Some tripoli is a coherent residuum from leached limestone, dolomite, or chert; other examples probably are colloidal silica that has been leached from other rocks and earth, gathered together in lumps, and partly recrystallized. The friable variety is more typical. The chemical composition is usually more than 95 percent silica (silicon dioxide, SiO2), but the impurities may impart desirable physical properties.
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