Definition of "lineament"
lineament
noun
plural lineaments
Any distinctive shape or line, etc.
Quotations
East-trending lineaments, some as long as 400 miles, are clearly discernible on the aeromagnetic maps. These lineaments may be associated with large fractures in the earth's crust.
1967, United States Geological Survey, Geological Survey Research 1967: Chapter A , Washington, D.C.: United States Government Publishing Office, page A145
The presence of lineaments is significant in site evaluation for waste disposal, because some lineaments may be faults or fracture zones with the potential to be ground-water conductors.
1988, A[rnold] I[van] Johnson, C. B[ernt] Pettersson, editors, Geotechnical Applications of Remote Sensing and Remote Data Transmission: A Symposium Sponsored by ASTM Committee D-18 on Soil and Rock, Cocoa Beach, FL, 31 Jan. – 1 Feb. 1986 , Philadelphia, Pa.: American Society for Testing and Materials, page 22
A distinctive feature that characterizes something, especially the parts of the face of an individual.
Quotations
Fortune reigns in gifts of the world, not in the lineaments of Nature.
c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene ii], lines 180-81
[…] onely remember, that so soone as thy eyelids be unglewd, thy first exercise must be (either sitting upright on thy pillow, or rarely loling at thy bodies whole length) to yawne, to stretch, and to gape wider then any oyster-wife : for thereby thou doest not onely send out the lively spirits (like vaunt-curers) to fortifie and make good the uttermost borders of the body ; but also (as a cunning painter) thy goodly lineaments are drawne out in their fairest proportion.
1609, Thomas Dekker, The Guls Horn-Booke, London: J.M. Dent, published 1905, page 23