noun
Freq #101870
Meanings
-
1
noun
a part of a rock formation that is exposed at the surface of the surrounding ground
Quartz glittered in an outcropping above the desert trail.
Thesaurus
Etymology
The noun is formed from outcrop + -ing. Outcrop combines out with crop in the older sense 'to appear or emerge at the surface' and became a geological term for exposed rock in the nineteenth century.