[a. It. lava (f. lavare to wash: see LAVE v.1), orig. ‘a streame or gutter suddainly caused by raine (Florio, 1611), applied in the Neapolitan dialect to a lava-stream from Vesuvius; hence adopted in literary It., where it developed the senses represented by 2 and 3 below. Hence Sp., Pg., Ger., Du., Da., Sw. lava, F. lave.]
† 1. A stream of molten rock issuing from the crater of a volcano or from fissures in the earth.
1750. Phil. Trans., XLVII. x. 52. The wells … near the places where the lava’s stopped, are sometimes found full.
1767. Hamilton, ibid., LVIII. 6. Another lava forced its way out of the same place from whence came the lava last year.
2. The fluid or semi-fluid matter flowing from a volcano.
1760. Ann. Reg., Chron., 86/1. On the 21st ult. … all the neighbourhood of Mount Vesuvius was overflowed by a deluge of burning bitumen called lava.
1820. Keats, Lamia, I. 157. As the lava ravishes the mead.
1832. De la Beche, Geol. Man. (ed. 2), 109. The lava burst out … at three different points, about eight or nine miles from each other.
1885. Times, 27 Aug., 5/6. The phenomenon which these people understand by ‘aluvion’ is really the stream of lava which descends the mountain sides, [etc.].
fig. 1821. Shelley, Lett., Prose Wks. 1880, IV. 197. We are surrounded here in Pisa by revolutionary volcanoes … the lava has not yet reached Tuscany.
1876. Humphrey, Coin Coll. Man., xix. 247. The lava of Roman power overflowed its native crater.
3. The substance that results from the cooling of the molten rock.
1750. Phil. Trans., XLVII. xxi. 150. This lava … is a very hard substance, like stone, of a slate colour.
1789. Mrs. Piozzi, Journ. France, II. 36. One of these towns is crushed … under loads of heavy lava.
1806. Gazetteer Scotl. (ed. 2), 306. The greater part of it is composed of lava, in which the different layers or currents are very evident.
1837. W. Irving, Capt. Bonneville (1849), 243. Great masses of lava lay scattered about in every direction.
1882. Rep. to Ho. Repr. Prec. Met. U.S., 622. Volcanic breccia and volcanic conglomerates are likewise designated by the term ‘lava.’
b. A kind of lava, a bed of lava.
1796. Kirwan, Elem. Min. (ed. 2), I. 400. Any matter that has issued out of a volcano in a liquified state … is in general, styled a lava.
1809. Brydone, Sicily, vii. 71. They pierced through seven distinct lavas one under the other.
1872. Dana, Corals, ii. 154. The cavities of a lava or basalt become filled.
1882. Geikie, Text-bk. Geol., III. I. i. § 1. 203. Lavas differ from each other in the extent to which they are impregnated with gases and vapours.
4. attrib. and Comb.: a. simple attributive, as lava-ash, -column, -cone, -current, -flow, -plain, -rill, -sea, -stream, -torrent; lava-like adj.; also lava-flag, -millstone (see quots.); lava-streak U.S., a basaltic dyke; lava ware (see quot.). b. instrumental, as lava-capped, -lit, -paved adjs.
1882. Rep. to Ho. Repr. Prec. Met. U.S., 634. The filling up … of the old river beds by *lava-ash. Ibid., 638. The bedrock of almost every *lava-capped mountain shows the same peculiarity.
1862. G. P. Scrope, Volcanos, 23. The *lava-column having seemingly sunk too far within the vent.
1882. Geikie, Text-bk. Geol., III. I. i. § 3. 246. A flat *lava-cone 13,760 feet above the sea.
1830. Lyell, Princ. Geol., I. 327. The *lava-current … may still be traced, by aid of the scoriæ on its surface.
1811. Pinkerton, Petral., II. 236. A … basalt fragment … called *lava flag.
1888. J. Prestwich, Geol., II. 91. Beds of contemporaneous *lava-flows.
1802. Playfair, Illustr. Hutton. Theory, 274. Crystallized, sparry or *lava-like structure.
1876. Geo. Eliot, Dan. Der., IV. lxv. 294. The *lava-lit track of her troubled conscience.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, *Lava-millstones, hard and coarse basaltic millstones, obtained from quarries near Andernach on the Rhine.
1837. W. Irving, Capt. Bonneville, III. 77. The immense *lava plain of San Gabriel.
1869. Phillips, Vesuv., iii. 83. Small *lava-rills among them.
1871. W. Morris, in Mackail, Life (1899), I. 268. A low mound of soft grass, rising like an island from the much-riven *lava-sea.
1872. R. B. Smyth, Mining Statist., 47. *‘Lava streaks,’ or dykes, are found associated with all the main lines of reels at Sandhurst.
1833. Lyell, Princ. Geol., III. 184. The branches … are formed simply of two *lava-streams.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 192. These *lava-torrents are often of great magnitude.
1860. Ure’s Dict. Arts (ed. 5), II. 641. *Lava-ware, a peculiar stoneware, manufactured and coloured to assume the semi-vitreous appearance of lava.
c. similative (quasi-adj.).
1818. Byron, Ch. Har., IV. li. While thy lips are With lava kisses melting while they burn.
