cor|al

cor|al «KR uhl, KOR-», noun, adjective.

–n.

1. a) a stony, often brightly colored substance consisting of skeletons of certain kinds of tiny sea animals called polyps, which usually live in colonies in warm seas. Coral is mainly calcium carbonate. Reefs and small islands consisting of coral are common in the South Seas, the Caribbean, and Bermuda. Coral is often used for jewelry. »

Coral grows in tropical areas in shallow water, and in the Pacific and Indian Oceans there are many coral atolls that are ringlike islands, enclosing a lagoon (Gaskell and Hill).

b) any of the skeletons forming this substance.

2. the little sea animal (a polyp) which makes coral and often forms large, branching or rounded colonies by budding. It is mostly stomach and mouth.

3. a) a piece of coral, especially red or pink coral, made into jewelry. b) a toy made of polished coral, or of glass, bone, or the like, given to infants as a teething ring.

4. a deep pink or red; coral red: »

His barefoot soldiers…tramping the snow to coral where they trod (James Russell Lowell).

5. the roe or unfertilized eggs of the lobster, that turn red when boiled.

6. = coral snake. (Cf. ↑coral snake)

–adj.

1. made of coral: »

a coral necklace.

2. resembling coral, especially in color; deep-pink or red; coral-red: »

Forth from her coral lips such folly broke (William Congreve).

3. producing coral: »

the coral polyps.

4. marked by the presence of coral: »

the coral seas.

╂[< Old French coral < Latin corallum < Greek korállion]