cretaceous

• POS: Adjective, Noun
• HYPHEN: cre=ta=ceous

CIDE DICTIONARY

cretaceous, a. [L. cretaceus, fr. creta chalk. See Crayon.].

•  Having the qualities of chalk; abounding with chalk; chalky; as, cretaceous rocks and formations. See Chalk.  [1913 Webster]
•  Of, pertaining to, or designating, the period of time following the Jurassic and preceding the Tertiary, generally given as from 144 million years b. p. to 65 million years b. p.. Also called Cre*tac"ic.  [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

Cretaceous acid, an old name for carbonic acid. -- Cretaceous formation (Geol.), the series of strata of various kinds, including beds of chalk, green sand, etc., formed in the Cretaceous period; -- called also the chalk formation. See the Diagram under Geology. -- Cretaceous period (Geol.), the time in the latter part of the Mesozoic age during which the Cretaceous formation was deposited, and at the end of which the dinosaurs died out. See Cretaceous.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

cretaceous, adj. & n.
--adj.
1 of the nature of chalk.
2 (Cretaceous) Geol. of or relating to the last period of the Mesozoic era, with evidence of the first flowering plants, the extinction of dinosaurs, and extensive deposits of chalk.

Usage

Cf. Appendix II.
--n. Geol. this era or system.

Etymology

L cretaceus f. creta chalk

ROGET THESAURUS

cretaceous

Oldness

N oldness, age, antiquity, cobwebs of antiquity, maturity, decline, decay, senility, seniority, eldership, primogeniture, archaism, thing of the past, relic of the past, megatherium, Sanskrit, tradition, prescription, custom, immemorial usage, common law, old, ancient, antique, of long standing, time-honored, venerable, elder, eldest, firstborn, prime, primitive, primeval, primigenous, paleolontological, paleontologic, paleoanthropological, paleoanthropic, paleolithic, primordial, primordinate, aboriginal, diluvian, antediluvian, protohistoric, prehistoric, antebellum, colonial, precolumbian, patriarchal, preadamite, paleocrystic, fossil, paleozoolical, paleozoic, preglacial, antemundane, archaic, classic, medieval, Pre-Raphaelite, ancestral, black-letter, immemorial, traditional, prescriptive, customary, whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contr, inveterate, rooted, antiquated, of other times, rococo, of the old school, after-age, obsolete, out of date, out of fashion, out of it, stale, old-fashioned, behind the age, old-world, exploded, gone out, gone by, passe, run out, senile, time worn, crumbling, secondhand, old as the hills, old as Methuselah, old as Adam, old as history, Archeozoic, Proterozoic, Paleozoic, Mesozoic, Cenozoic, Precambrian, Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Mississippian, Pennsylvanian, Permian, Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous, Tertiary, Paleogene, Neocene, Quaternary, Paleocene, Eocene, Oligocene, Miocene, Pliocene, Pleistocene, Recent, since the world was made, since the year one, since the days of Methuselah, vetera extollimus recentium incuriosi.

Whiteness

N whiteness, argent, albification, etiolation, lactescence, snow, paper, chalk, milk, lily, ivory, alabaster, albata, eburin, German silver, white metal, barium sulphate, titanium oxide, blanc fixe, ceruse, pearl white, white lead, carbonate of lead, white, milk-white, snow-white, snowy, niveous, candid, chalky, hoar, hoary, silvery, argent, argentine, canescent, cretaceous, lactescent, whitish, creamy, pearly, fair, blond, blanched, high in tone, light, white as a sheet, white as driven snow, white as a lily, white as silver, like ivory.