Definition of "coral reef" []

• An erosion-resistant marine ridge or mound consisting chiefly of compacted coral together with algal material and biochemically deposited magnesium and calcium carbonates. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "While it would be idle to particularise the different varieties of beche-de-mer, that lead such lowly lives in the coral reef here, there is one more conspicuous than the others, which may be referred to without presuming to trespass on the preserves of scientific inquirers."
• "On the second day of the Mahallah's stopping there, a half gale arose, and the Tantah slipped off the coral reef into eighty fathoms of water."
• "To enumerate the smaller and lowlier of the many creatures that live on the coral reef would be a task utterly beyond ordinary capability."