bedrock

plural bedrocks

1. countableuncountablebusinessThe solid rock found at some depth below the ground surface.

   Listen! It's big. Only eight to twenty feet to bedrock. There won't be a claim that don't run to half a million.

   1912 October, Jack London, “The Stampede to Squaw Creek”, in Smoke Bellew, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co, →OCLC

   1 more example

   The denudation of the land was upon a grand scale. All superficial accumulations were swept away, and the bedrock was exposed.

   1880, Mark Twain [pseudonym] (Samuel L[anghorne] Clemens), chapter XL, in A Tramp Abroad; […], Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company; London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 466

2. countablefigurativelyuncountableA basis or foundation.

   If culture is the bedrock of a society, then language is the cornerstone of culture.

   4 more examples

   Now, although like most young people, Godfrey was indolent and evasive of difficulties, fearful of facing troubles also, he had a bedrock of character.

   1918, H[enry] Rider Haggard, chapter VIII, in Love Eternal

   Many of the bedrock assumptions of American culture — about work, progress, fairness and optimism — are being shaken as successive generations worry about the prospect of declining living standards.

   2012 October 23, David Leonhardt, “Standard of Living Is in the Shadows as Election Issue”, in New York Times, retrieved 24 Oct 2012

   The research on the Like button was an example of how Facebook has questioned the bedrock features of social networking.

   2021 October 25, Mike Isaac, “Facebook Wrestles With the Features It Used to Define Social Networking”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

   Above all, rail needs to be boring. By that, I mean that it must run its timetable reliably, day-in and day-out. Punctuality and reliability remain the bedrock of a successful railway.

   2023 April 5, Philip Haigh, “Comment: Pay deal a positive result”, in RAIL, number 980, page 3

3. Internetcountableuncountableself-harmThe bones.

present singular third person bedrocks · participle present bedrocking · participle past bedrocked · past bedrocked

1. figurativelytransitiveTo establish on a solid foundation.

   Bedrocked in the formative race relations of the Heart of Dixie, the governor declined an invitation to the unveiling of artist Maya Lin's civil rights memorial in downtown Montgomery.

   2011, Allen Tullos, Alabama Getaway: The Political Imaginary and the Heart of Dixie, page 128