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Webster 1913 Edition

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Noun.

[G., fr.

kiesel

flint +

guhr

an earthy deposit or sediment in water.]

Siliceous earth; diatomaceous earth; specifically, porous infusorial earth, used as an absorbent of nitroglycerin in the manufacture of dynamite.

kieselguhr ‎(countable and uncountable, plural kieselguhrs)

A kind of soft rock containing the remains of diatoms; it absorbs nitroglycerine and is used to manufacture dynamite.
- 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage 2007, p. 191:
  It was the only name anybody seemed to know him by, “Kieselguhr” being a kind of fine clay, used to soak up nitroglycerine and stabilize it into dynamite.

kieselguhr m ‎(plural kieselguhrs)