The Collaborative International Dictionary
Mosaic \Mo*sa"ic\, n. [F. mosa["i]que; cf. Pr. mozaic, musec, Sp. & Pg. mosaico, It. mosaico, musaico, LGr. ?, ?, L. musivum; all fr. Gr. ? belonging to the Muses. See Muse the goddess.]
(Fine Arts) A surface decoration made by inlaying in patterns small pieces of variously colored glass, stone, or other material; -- called also mosaic work.
A picture or design made in mosaic; an article decorated in mosaic.
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Something resembling a mosaic[1]; something made up of different pieces, fitted together by design to form a unified composition.
aerial mosaic An aerial photograph of a large area, made by carefully fitting together aerial photographs of smaller areas so that the edges match in location, and the whole provides a continuous image of the larger area. Called also
mosaic map and photomosaic.
mosaic virus A type of plant virus that causes green and yellow mottling of leaves of a plant. A much-studied type is the tobacco mosaic virus, affecting the tobacco plant.
Usage examples of "mosaic work".
It had been only a partial success-at night, by candlelight, the effect was not what Crispin had hoped it would be-but they'd learned a fair bit, and learning from errors was what mosaic work was about, as Martinian was fond of telling the apprentices.
Here, in intricate mosaic work, the formation of the world by Elune and the other gods was depicted, the Mother Moon of course illustrated most dominantly.
He had a singular propensity, for example, to hang over Maule's well, and look at the constantly shifting phantasmagoria of figures produced by the agitation of the water over the mosaic work of colored pebbles at the bottom.
This was a fountain, set round with a rim of old mossy stones, and paved, in its bed, with what appeared to be a sort of Mosaic work of variously colored pebbles.