- ooze
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ooze1
/oohz/, v., oozed, oozing, n.v.i.1. (of moisture, liquid, etc.) to flow, percolate, or exude slowly, as through holes or small openings.2. to move or pass slowly or gradually, as if through a small opening or passage: The crowd oozed toward the entrance.3. (of a substance) to exude moisture.4. (of something abstract, as information or courage) to appear or disappear slowly or imperceptibly (often fol. by out or away): His cockiness oozed away during my rebuttal speech.5. to display some characteristic or quality: to ooze with piety.v.t.6. to make by oozing.8. to display or dispense freely and conspicuously: He can ooze charm when it serves his interest.n.9. the act of oozing.10. something that oozes.11. an infusion of oak bark, sumac, etc., used in tanning.[bef. 1000; ME wos(e) (n.), wosen (v.), OE wos juice, moisture]Syn. 10. slime, mud, muck, sludge.ooze2/oohz/, n.1. Geol. a calcareous or siliceous mud composed chiefly of the shells of one-celled organisms, covering parts of the ocean bottom.2. soft mud, or slime.3. a marsh or bog.[bef. 900; ME wose, OE wase mud]
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▪ geologypelagic (deep-sea) sediment of which at least 30 percent is composed of the skeletal remains of microscopic floating organisms. Oozes are basically deposits of soft mud on the ocean floor. They form on areas of the seafloor distant enough from land so that the slow but steady deposition of dead microorganisms from overlying waters is not obscured by sediments washed from the land. The oozes are subdivided first into calcareous oozes (containing skeletons made of calcium carbonate) and siliceous oozes (containing skeletons made of silica) and then are divided again according to the predominant skeleton type. Thus, the calcareous oozes include globigerina ooze, containing the shells of planktonic foraminifera, and pteropod ooze, made up chiefly of the shells of pelagic mollusks. The siliceous oozes include radiolarian ooze, comprising essentially brown clay with more than 30 percent of the skeletons of warm-water protozoa, and diatom ooze, containing the frustules (tiny shells) of diatoms. The siliceous oozes exist only where the rate of deposition of diatoms or radiolarians is greater than the rate at which their silica content is dissolved in the deep waters; thus the diatom oozes are confined to belts in the North Pacific and Antarctic, and the radiolarian oozes are found only under the eastern part of the North Pacific. Globigerina ooze is the most widespread of the oozes and occurs in both the Atlantic and Indian oceans. Pteropod ooze is found only in the mid-Atlantic.* * *
Universalium. 2010.