stalactite

IPA: stˈɔɫæktaɪt

(geology) A secondary mineral deposit of calcium carbonate or another mineral, in shapes similar to icicles, that hangs from the roof of a cave.

Examples of "stalactite" in Sentences

They are kissing beneath an elegant stalactite swirling over them like filigree.
Writers are stalactite makers, dripping away in the limestone caverns of the mind.
A stalactite is a mineral deposit that is usually - though not exclusively - found in limestone caves.
Basle, and the great fissure of Amarnath in Kashmir, with its icy stalactite which is the special object of worship.
You find in a cave, say a stalactite which is dripping water into a pool at a very regular rate, gradually filling it up.
A film pairs the great stalactite of Doolin Cave in north Clare with a choirboy giving a brief performance to the millennia-old giant drip of rock.
They were all tapestried, as it were, with a kind of stalactite, which covered the funnel to the top, with its knobs and chintz-like variation of colors.
There are, incidentally, types of stalactites that grow more quickly; in fact, icicles are a kind of stalactite, and there are others that rapidly grow from gypsum, but no one has ever found or fast growing calcite stalactite, nor has anyone ever demonstrated a way to grow one quickly, because the process seems to be intrinsically slow.