volcanic
/vɒlˈkanɪk
/adjective
1Relating to or produced by a volcano or volcanoes: types of volcanic activity thick deposits of black volcanic ash...
- In addition to scoria and ash, other volcanic ejecta include blocks, bombs, and xenoliths.
- More than 80 Vesuvius eruptions were listed in a recent worldwide directory of volcanic activity.
- Even scarier and more destructive than volcanic mudflows are pyroclastic flows or glowing avalanches.
1.1(Of a feeling or emotion) bursting out or liable to burst out violently: the kind of volcanic passion she’d felt last night...
- As he gazes past you into the middle-distance, you sense that he could erupt in a volcanic temper.
- Football's corporate wing is doing its best to raise the level of excitement about the competition to volcanic levels.
Derivatives
volcanically
- There have been five successive low intensity earthquakes in recent days in the island's most volcanically active zone, in the area between Mount Teide and Santiago del Teide.
- Some people grieve mightily, volcanically, with sadness and anger and regret issuing forth like a painful eruption.
- A new model helps explain the latest episode of rapid surface rise and increased geyser activity - from 1997 to 2003-in the volcanically active region in the western United States.
Origin
Late 18th century: from French volcanique, from volcan (see volcano).