| / English Dictionary |
ROCKY
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
Irregular inflected forms: rockier , rockiest
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Full of hardship or trials
Example:
they were having a rough time
Synonyms:
rocky; rough
Classified under:
Similar:
difficult; hard (not easy; requiring great physical or mental effort to accomplish or comprehend or endure)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Abounding in rocks or stones
Example:
bouldery beaches
Synonyms:
bouldered; bouldery; rocky; stony
Classified under:
Similar:
rough; unsmooth (having or caused by an irregular surface)
Derivation:
rock (a lump or mass of hard consolidated mineral matter)
rockiness (the quality of abounding in rocks and stones)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Causing or characterized by jolts and irregular movements
Example:
a rough ride
Synonyms:
bumpy; jolting; jolty; jumpy; rocky; rough
Classified under:
Adjectives
Derivation:
rock (pitching dangerously to one side)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Liable to rock
Example:
on high rocky heels
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
unstable (lacking stability or fixity or firmness)
Context examples:
It was hard to believe that by our watches it was less than an hour that we waited in that rocky shelter before the various bodies began to converge close upon us.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
The two squires hurried across to him, and the three stood looking down into the rocky ravine which lay a hundred and fifty feet beneath them.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
They have no solid surface but rather mantles of hydrogen and helium surrounding a water-rich interior, itself perhaps wrapped around a rocky core.
(Hubble Reveals Dynamic Atmospheres of Uranus, Neptune, NASA)
If confirmed by further studies, this will be the only exoplanet known to have both water in its atmosphere and temperatures that could sustain liquid water on a rocky surface.
(Hubble Finds Water Vapor on Habitable-Zone Exoplanet for 1st Time, NASA)
However, Kepler-1625b and its possible satellite are gaseous and not rocky, so the moon may have formed through a different process.
(Astronomers Find First Evidence of Possible Moon Outside Our Solar System, NASA)
During Cassini's orbits of Saturn, instruments examined the icy, rocky rings in unprecedented detail.
(Scientists Finally Know What Time It Is on Saturn, NASA)
The main conclusion is that, if phosphine is detected in a nearby, rocky planet, that planet must be harboring life of some kind.
(Poisonous Earthly Molecule May Be Sign of Extraterrestrial Life, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
By studying the deep interior of Mars, they hope to learn how other rocky worlds, including Earth and the Moon, formed.
(NASA's InSight Detects First Likely 'Quake' on Mars, NASA)
Scientists theorize that the decay of radioactive elements within Ceres produced heat that drove this alteration process, separating Ceres into a rocky interior and icy outer shell.
(Where is the Ice on Ceres?, NASA)
In the newly validated batch of planets, nearly 550 could be rocky planets like Earth based on size.
(Kepler Mission Announces Largest Collection of Planets Ever Discovered, NASA)
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