foliation

noun9

1. •
   The process of forming into a leaf or leaves.
2. •
   The property, possessed by some crystalline rocks, of being divided into plates or layers, due to the cleavage structure of one of the constituents, as mica or hornblende. It may sometimes include slaty structure or cleavage, though the latter is usually independent of any mineral constituent, and transverse to the bedding, it having been produced by pressure.

   • The dominant strike orientation of both bedding and foliation of Vermont bedrock is north or northeasterly. — 1993
3. •
   A set of submanifolds of a given manifold, each of which is of lower dimension than it, but which, taken together, are coextensive with it.

   • Historically, the formalism which first arose for the material we discuss is that of measured foliations in surfaces. — 1992
4. •
   The process of forming into pages; pagination.
5. •
   The numbering of the folios of a manuscript or a book.
6. •
   The enrichment of an opening by means of foils, arranged in trefoils, quatrefoils, etc.; also, one of the ornaments.

   • The house was a big elaborate limestone affair, evidently new. Winter sunshine sparkled on lace-hung casement, on glass marquise, and the burnished bronze foliations of grille and door. — 1907
7. •
   The manner in which the young leaves are disposed within the bud.
8. •
   The act of beating a metal into a thin plate, leaf, foil, or lamina.
9. •
   The act of coating with an amalgam of tin foil and quicksilver, as in making looking-glasses.