stalactites

1. Rock structures formed on the ceilings of caves as water drips down, leaving behind minerals before it falls. ( Compare stalagmites .)

Notes

Stalactites grow very slowly.

One easy way to distinguish stalactites from stalagmites is to recall that stalactites “hold tight ” to the ceiling of a cave. Stalagmites “ might reach the ceiling” of the cave and form a column.

Example Sentences

For there would be no ice here; the drippings of the snowsheds, with their accompanying stalactites and stalagmites, were absent.

From Project Gutenberg

And in the black dome, where the lava turned to molten spray, hung countless stalactites of every color known to the artistic eye.

From Project Gutenberg

George asked, and the tears poured down over his cheeks like the water over the stalactites.

From Project Gutenberg

When he came to himself again, he found himself in a closed cave, amidst strange forms of grey-brown, dripping stalactites.

From Project Gutenberg

A green matter oozes from the seams in these rocks, and forms a kind of stalactites, which is apparently a carbonate of copper.

From Project Gutenberg