[ad. L. corallin-us of the nature or color of coral; f. corallum, CORAL.] A. adj.
1. Of the color of red coral; red. Coralline ware: pottery of a red paste made in Italy in the 17th and 18th centuries.
a. 1633. Lennard, trans. Charron’s Wisd. (1658), 19. The mouth little, the lips coraline.
1669. Worlidge, Syst. Agric., vi. § 7 (1681), 101. Pyracantha … is raised … of the bright Coralline Berries.
1877. Amelia B. Edwards, Up Nile, xii. 318. The pinks are coralline.
2. Of the nature of coral; composed or consisting of coral, as coralline limestone, marble, etc. Coralline oolite = CORAL RAG.
1660. Boyle, New Exp. Phys.-Mech., xlii. 387. The same Coralline Corpuscles.
1673. Phil. Trans., VIII. 6158. Corallin incrustations upon truly wooden and branchy sticks.
1856. Stanley, Sinai & Pal., i. (1858), 83. It is these coralline forests which form the true ‘weeds’ of this fantastic sea.
1869. A. R. Wallace, Malay Archipelago, II. 21. All the parts that I have seen have either been volcanic or coralline.
1871. Phillips, Geol. Oxford, 299. The coralline oolite and calcareous grits must have been produced in long fringes and detached banks.
3. Resembling coral; coral-like.
1860. Ruskin, Mod. Paint., V. VI. ix. 81. The extremities form a kind of coralline leaf.
1870. Bentley, Bot., 122–3. Coralline Root … is applied to a root which consists of a number of succulent branches of nearly equal size.
† 4. fig. Of or pertaining to the coral, or ‘tree of pearl,’ which is Christ. Obs. Cf. CORAL 4 c.
1649. J. Ellistone, trans. Behmen’s Epist., XXXI. iii. 195. I make no doubt, but the pretious Coralline branch of the new birth is begotten in you.
B. sb. (improper uses.)
1. A coral zoophyte.
1860. Maury, Phys. Geog. Sea, § 537. Corallines are at work about the Gulf Stream, they have built up the Florida Reefs.
2. = CORAL (the calcareous substance).
1779. Forrest, Voy. N. Guinea, 269. The sand was too hard, and mixed with broken coralines for turtles to lay.
1863. Speke, Discov. Nile, 6. Next day we went on to Europa, a small island of coralline.
1876. R. F. Burton, Gorilla L., I. 8. The outside walls … are whitewashed with burnt coralline.
