LAVA LAMP Definition & Meaning

lava lamp

[ lah-vuh lamp ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

an electric lamp made of a transparent, tapered cylinder containing a liquid in which a colored wax-based or waxlike substance is stimulated by the heat of the light bulb to change into randomly separating shapes that constantly rise and fall:
Call me an old hippie, but lava lamps belong in rooms with Woodstock posters and beaded curtains, not among the pristine décor of gabled verandas.

lava lamp

noun

a decorative type of lamp in which a luminous viscous material moves in constantly changing shapes

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�y��vlog History and Origins

Origin of lava lamp¹

First recorded in 1965–70

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�y��vlog History and Origins

Origin of lava lamp¹

C20: from the resemblance of the shapes to molten lava in water

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

One senior member of staff joked about the poor quality of the school's sensory room, saying: "We’ve got a doll's head on top of a freezer, a bean bag, and a lava lamp. This is the sensory room?"

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The tablet is propped up in a cozy-looking bedroom next to a lava lamp, a mascara tube and a framed portrait of the girl and her dog.

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Surely I was in for many nights of taking in the wonder of a rapidly shimmering ectoplasm-green alien lava lamp.

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The trailers, crafted by Pierson and her wife, have their own unique 70s-era decor that includes yellow and orange curtains, bright furniture and color walls including one splattered with orange lava lamp shapes.

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Because the lower mantle was not totally melted by the impact, the blobs of iron-rich material from Theia stayed largely intact as they sifted down to the base of the mantle, like the colored masses of paraffin wax in a turned-off lava lamp.

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