of the nature of bitumen, esp. with regard to its color and combustibility
2.
containing or made from bitumen
Word origin
Fr bitumineux < L bitumineus
bituminous in American English
(baiˈtuːmənəs, -ˈtjuː-, bɪ-)
adjective
resembling or containing bitumen
bituminous shale
Word origin
[1610–20; ‹ L bitūminōsus, equiv. to bitūmin- (s. of bitūmen) bitumen + -ōsus-ous]This word is first recorded in the period 1610–20. Other words that entered Englishat around the same time include: cult, cultivate, decoy, tank, technical-ous is a suffix forming adjectives that have the general sense “possessing, full of”a given quality (covetous; glorious; nervous; wondrous); -ous and its variant -ious have often been used to Anglicize Latin adjectives with terminations that cannotbe directly adapted into English (atrocious; contiguous; garrulous; obvious; stupendous). As an adjective-forming suffix of neutral value, it regularly Anglicizes Greekand Latin adjectives derived without suffix from nouns and verbs; many such formationsare productive combining forms in English, sometimes with a corresponding nominalcombining form that has no suffix (as -fer and -ferous; -phore and -phorous; -pter and -pterous; -vore and -vorous)
Examples of 'bituminous' in a sentence
bituminous
Paint cast iron with bituminous paint to prevent rusting.
Times, Sunday Times (2006)
Over millions of years the lake mud became bituminous shale, which was then quarried for fuel.
Times, Sunday Times (2009)
But the environmental consequences of developing oil sands - bituminous lakes that contain sand, water and heavy crude oil - are breathtaking.