sediment

Material that settles to the bottom of a liquid; lees.

Solid fragments of inorganic or organic material that come from the weathering of rock and are carried and deposited by wind, water, or ice.

The matter which settles to the bottom of water or any other liquid; settlings; lees; dregs; in geology, detrital material mechanically suspended in or deposited from water; the material of which the sedimentary rocks are composed.

To allow to settle; settle: said of matter in suspension in a liquid.

In a steam-boiler, an internal deposit of precipitate from the feed-water, or of solid matter mechanically present, which lies as a loose or soft mud on the heating surfaces: distinguished from scale, which is a hard crystalline coating adhering to the metal.