Lichen

Definitions

1. Any of many symbiotic organisms, being associations of algae and fungi, often found as white or yellow-to-blue–green patches on rocks, old walls, etc.
   countable, uncountable
2. Something which gradually spreads across something else, causing damage.
   countable, figuratively, uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“The Beaches of Lukannon–the winter wheat so tall, / The dripping, crinkled lichens, and the sea-fog drenching all!”

“It was the same rich green that one sees on forest moss or on the lichen in caves: plants which like⟳ these grow⟳ in a perpetual twilight.”

“The nibble marks of the stone adze were still visible, though crusted over with scale lichens in most places.”

“Meanwhile, abiding a day of judgment, she fought ceaselessly to deny⟳ the bitter drops in her cup, to tear⟳ back the slow, the intangibly slow growth of a hot, corrosive lichen eating into her heart.”

CEFR level