1805 Edinb. Rev. 6 244 Most of our coal has been discovered..by exploring their outcrops.

1815 W. Smith Mem. to Map Strata Eng. & Wales 7 The edges of the strata, which may all be crossed in the journey from east to west, are called their outcrops.

1878 T. H. Huxley Physiography (ed. 2) 29 Rain falling upon the ground..is absorbed by the outcrop, or exposed surface, of the sandy stratum.

1940 N. Tranter Harsh Heritage iii. 75 Jonathan sat himself down upon a flat granite outcrop and consulted his map.

1955 Times 31 Aug. 7/4 The grass is a vivid green, dotted with out-crops from the mountains to the south.

1995 Rescue News June 7/4 The Geevor sett was worked as a series of small and relatively unsuccessful mines exploiting the lode outcrops.

1854 S. P. Woodward Man. Mollusca ii. 213 Flattened prisms of considerable length, arranged..obliquely to the surfaces of the shell, the interior of which is imbricated by their out-crop.

1864 ‘T. Brevior’ Two Worlds p. vii I regard these as..the mere outcrop on the surface indicating the presence and operation of underlying spiritual forces.

1897 W. C. Hazlitt Four Generations Lit. Family I. ii. ii. 92 Here we have an outcrop of that splenetic acrimony.

1942 H. C. Warner Christian Youth Leadership ii. 26 We have seen the sudden outcrop of Youth Centres, Youth Service Corps, Juvenile Civil Defence Units, etc.

1987 Stock & Land (Melbourne) 18 June 27/1 Broken rails and dangerous out-crops such as bolts and catches should all be removed.

1991 P. Jenkins Fields of Vision vii. 55 There are outcrops of tourism, particularly around Cavendish, where the Japanese turnstile in and out of the home of Lucy Maud Montgomery.

a1830 Encycl. Metrop. (1845) IV. 806 Any such mass [e.g., of air] may be conceived as cut up into two or more oppositely vibrating portions pervading it according to certain laws. Where these surfaces out-crop or intersect the external surface of the map, there will be a nodal line.

1848 Jrnl. Royal Agric. Soc. 9 i. 61 Wherever it outcrops, the soil is distinguished for its fertility.

1895 Westm. Gaz. 27 May 8/1 A number of other reefs..traverse the property, either outcropping on or dipping into it.

1968 C. Embleton & C. A. M. King Glacial & Periglacial Geomorphol. ii. ix. 227 The streams draining north-west to the Fens rise 40 km. east of the Gault, which outcrops west of the Chalk.

1990 Antiquaries Jrnl. 52 16 The solid geology is Magnesian Limestone which outcrops in parts of the wood.

1856 C. J. Ellicott in Cambr. Ess. 172 Because a few suspicious words here and there outcrop in the narrative.

1860 M. F. Maury Physical Geogr. Sea (ed. 8) xii. §553 Do we not..find outcropping some reason for the question, what have the winds had to do with the phenomena before us?

1932 D. Lindsay Devil's Tor xxiii. 330 To persons acquainted with the sagas and reading with heedful mind, a singular racial circumstance everywhere outcrops in them.

1977 Church Times 18 Feb. 16/3 Religious questions should outcrop where and when and by what creative talents and processes are available to people who work in TV.