stone
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /stəʊn/
ipa: /stoʊn/
ipa: /stɐʉn/
rhymes: -əʊn
Forms: form: stones
form: stone
raw_tags: as unit of weight
Etymology: From Middle English ston, stone, stan, from Old English stān, from Proto-West Germanic *stain, from Proto-Germanic *stainaz, from Proto-Indo-European *steyh₂- (“to stiffen”).
Cognate with Scots stane (“stone”), North Frisian stian, Stiin, stiinj (“stone”), Saterland Frisian Steen (“stone”), West Frisian stien (“stone”), Dutch steen (“stone”), German Stein (“stone”), German Low German Steen, Stein (“stone”), Luxembourgish Steen (“stone”), Vilamovian śtan (“stone”), Yiddish שטיין (shteyn, “stone”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål and Swedish sten (“stone”), Faroese steinur (“stone”), Gutnish stain (“stone”), Icelandic steinn (“stone”), Norwegian Nynorsk stein (“stone”), Gothic 𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌹𐌽𐍃 (stains, “stone”). Compare also Russian стена́ (stená, “wall”), Ancient Greek στία (stía, “pebble”), στέαρ (stéar, “tallow”), Albanian shtëng (“hardened or pressed matter”), Sanskrit स्त्यायते (styāyate, “it hardens”)). Doublet of stain, stean, and stein.
Senses: examples: text: Toad, that vnder cold ſtone, / Dayes and Nights ha’s thirty one: / Sweltred Venom ſleeping got, / Boyle thou firſt i’th’ charmed pot.
ref: c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], page 143, column 2:
text: The first day of the weeke, commeth Mary Magdalene earely when it was yet darke, vnto the Sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the Sepulchre.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, John 20:1:
text: It is about 2,500 yards in circuit, is built of red stone, and, according to Von Orlich, is now " a bastioned quinquangle ; the ancient walls with semicircular bastions face the two streams ; the land side is quite regular, and consists of two bastions, and a half-bastion with three ravelins," and stands higher than any ground in face of it.
ref: 1858, Edward Thornton, A Gazetteer of the Territories Under the Government of the East India Company and of the Native States on the Continent of India, W. H. Allen & Co., page 22:
text: The solitary, lumbering trolls of Scandinavian mythology would sometimes be turned to stone by exposure to sunlight. Barack Obama is hoping that several measures announced on June 4th will have a similarly paralysing effect on their modern incarnation, the patent troll.
ref: 2013 June 8, “Obama goes troll-hunting”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 55:
topics: geography
geology
natural-sciences
synonyms: rock
glosses: A hard earthen substance that can form rocks; especially, such substance when regarded as a building material.
topics: geography
geology
natural-sciences
glosses: A piece of such material: a rock or a pebble.
examples: text: […]Ineſtimable Stones, vnvalewed Iewels[…]
ref: c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv], page 180, column 1:
glosses: A gemstone, a jewel, especially a diamond.
examples: text: British people measure their weight in stones and pounds. I weigh eight stone five.
text: Seven pounds make a clove, 2 cloves a stone, 2 stone a tod, 6+¹⁄₂ tods a wey, 2 weys a sack, 12 sacks a last. […] It is to be observed here that a sack is 13 tods, and a tod 28 pounds, so that the sack is 364 pounds.
ref: 1843, The Penny Cyclopaedia, page 202:
text: Generally, however, the stone or petra, almost always of 14 lbs., is used, the tod of 28 lbs., and the sack of thirteen stones.
ref: 1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume IV, page 209:
text: Weighed myself at the gym and have hit 10st 8lb, a sure sign of things getting out of control—so I can’t even console myself with a chocolate biscuit.
ref: 1992 October 3, Edwina Currie, Diary:
glosses: A unit of weight equal to 14 pounds (≈6.3503 kilograms), formerly used for various commodities (wool, cheese, etc.), but now principally used for personal weight. Abbreviated as st.
examples: text: Near-synonym: pip
text: a peach stone
topics: biology
botany
natural-sciences
synonyms: word: pit
word: seed pit
word: ;
topics: botany
biology
natural-sciences
word: pyrena
word: pyrene
glosses: The central part of some fruits, particularly drupes; consisting of the seed and a hard endocarp layer.
examples: text: The pain of passing a larger stone is often compared to child birth.
ref: 2016 September 26, James Hamblin, “A Health Benefit of Roller Coasters”, in The Atlantic:
topics: medicine
sciences
synonyms: calculus
glosses: A hard, stone-like deposit.
qualifier: board games
glosses: A playing piece made of any hard material, used in various board games such as backgammon and go.
glosses: A dull light grey or beige, like that of some stones.
topics: ball-games
curling
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: A 42-pound, precisely shaped piece of granite with a handle attached, which is bowled down the ice.
examples: text: Amid that scene, if ſome relenting eye
 Glance on the ſtone where our cold reliques lie.
ref: 1717, Alexander Pope, “Eloisa to Abelard”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume II, London: […] J. Wright, for Lawton Gilliver […], published 1717, →OCLC, page 434:
text: It seems to me that when I die / These words will be written on my stone[…]
ref: 2013 November 25, Zayn Malik, “Story of My Life”, in Midnight Memories, Columbia Records; Syco Music:
glosses: A monument to the dead; a gravestone or tombstone.
examples: text: She's dead as earth: Lend me a Looking-glaſſe; / If that her breath will miſt or ſtaine the ſtone, / Why then ſhe liues.
ref: c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii], page 309, column 1:
glosses: A mirror, or its glass.
examples: text: […]and yet I warrant it had vpon it brow, a bumpe as big as a young Cockrels ſtone?
ref: c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii], page 56, column 1:
text: Hee that is wounded in the ſtones, or hath his priuie member cut off, ſhall not enter into the Congregation of the Lord.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Deuteronomy 23:1:
text: To make Capons […] ſome for this Purpoſe make it their Buſineſs after Harveſt-time to go to Markets for buying up Chickens, and between Michaelmas and All-hollantide caponize the Cocks, when they have got large enough to have Stones of ſuch a Bigneſs that they may be pulled out; for if they are too little, it can't be done.
ref: 1750, W[illiam] Ellis, The Country Housewife's Family Companion […] , London: James Hodges; B. Collins, →OCLC, page 157:
glosses: A testicle.
examples: text: The Chief called the makeup editor to the stone, pointed to the story which had caught his eye, and suggested a fairly simple remake.
ref: 1965, George Murray, The Madhouse on Madison Street, page 38:
topics: media
printing
publishing
synonyms: imposing stone
glosses: A stand or table with a smooth, flat top of stone, commonly marble, on which to arrange the pages of a book, newspaper, etc. before printing.
Synonyms: sense: substance
word: rock
sense: small piece of stone
word: pebble
sense: unit of mass
word: petra
sense: of fruit
word: pip
sense: of fruit
word: pit
topics: calculus
mathematics
sciences
word: hard stone-like deposit
sense: curling piece
word: rock