marble
Part of speech: noun
verb
adj
Morphological type: simple
Topics: archaeology
games
geography
geology
history
human-sciences
natural-sciences
petrology
sciences
Etymology: Inherited from Middle English marble, marbre; from Anglo-Norman and Old French marbre, from Latin marmor, from Ancient Greek μάρμαρος (mármaros), perhaps related to μαρμάρεος (marmáreos, “gleaming”). The forms from French displaced Old English marma, which had previously been borrowed from Latin.
Inflected forms:
form: marbles
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: marbles
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: marbling
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: marbled
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: marbled
pos: verb
tags: past
form: more marble
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: most marble
pos: adj
tags: superlative
Senses:
gloss: A metamorphic rock of crystalline limestone.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
examples: Open thy marble jaws, O tomb / And hide me, earth, in thy dark womb.
gloss: A small ball used in games, originally of marble but now usually of glass or ceramic.
pos: noun
tags: countable
gloss: Statues made from marble.
pos: noun
tags: countable
in-plural
uncountable
examples: The Elgin Marbles were originally part of the temple of the Parthenon.
[I]t was a portrait of the Library, though not strictly correct as to its contents, since all the best of the marbles displayed in various parts of the house were brought into the painting by the artist, who made it up into a picturesque composition according to his own taste.
gloss: The marbling in meat.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: The marble is graded using the Australian system.
gloss: To cause (something to have) the streaked or swirled appearance of certain types of marble, for example by mixing viscous ingredients incompletely, or by applying paint or other colorants unevenly.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: The small clouds which chequered the sky, as they passed along, spread their flitting shadows on the distant mountains, and seemed to marble them; a beauty which I do not recollect has struck any painter.
In the operation of marbling the edges of the books, [...]
gloss: To get or have the streaked or swirled appearance of certain types of marble, for example due to the incomplete mixing of viscous ingredients, or the uneven application of paint or other colorants.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: Scent the entire batch and then color half with the blue colorant. Pour both parts back into your soap pot. Do not stir. Pour in a circular motion into a block mold. The pouring action will cause the soap to marble.
gloss: To cause meat, usually beef, pork, or lamb, to be interlaced with fat so that its appearance resembles that of marble.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Their flesh is soft (tender), and they throw a portion of their fat among the lean so as to marble it. The beef is of a better quality and they take on fat much easier.
The Merino sheep is likely to put his weight largely into tallow around the stomach, intestines and on his kidneys, instead of mixing fairly with the meat, instead of marbling the meat.
Either by forcing the lardoon out with a plunger, by pushing it with a knife point, or by trailing it behind the needle, the cook artificially marbles the meat. For French cooks intent on larding, traditionally, the choice fat was the lard gras (pork fat).
gloss: To become interlaced with fat; (of fat) to interlace through meat.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: We've gone mostly to black bulls — Angus bulls because today the packers like black cattle. They seem to marble better.
As we feed these cattle corn their meat marbles. By marbling, I mean the red meat cells are surrounded with fat
... claims probably stem from people having eaten beef from older, thinner animals which had rarely had enough excess energy in their diet to cause the meat to marble.
The exercising of the cattle causes the fat to marble right through the animal — and much of the flavour is found in the fat.
gloss: To lace or be laced throughout.
pos: verb
tags: broadly
figuratively
examples: Was he the reason for the bitterness that seemed to marble her character?
'Nobody who has been to war ever talks about it,' he says. But then he does talk, and generously, mining his memory and following the vein of a life marbled with experience: 'I mean, I am in my nineties; […]'
gloss: Made of, or resembling, marble.
pos: adj
examples: a marble mantel
marble paper
gloss: Cold; hard; unfeeling.
pos: adj
tags: figuratively
examples: a marble heart
Related words: marmoreal
Derived words: all the marbles
Blue Marble
blue marble tree
Carrara marble
emmarble
enmarble
fire marble
green marble
lose one's marbles
Luna marble
marbelic
Marble Arch
Marble Bar
marble beef
marble berry
marble cake
Marble Canyon
marble cheese
marble cichlid
marble egg
marblefish
marble fox
marble goby
marble-hearted
Marble Hill
marbleization
marbleless
marblelike
marbleness
marble orchard
marble paper
marbler
marble run
marble rye bread
marbles
marble scissors
Marblette
marblewood
marblework
marblish
marbly
Moqui marble
mouthful of marbles
nonmarble
onyx marble
Pentelic marble
Picasso marble
pick up one's marbles and go home
Sussex marble
travertine marble
woolly marbles
marbling
Translations:
lang: Asturian
word: xaspiar
lang: Catalan
word: marbrar
lang: Catalan
word: mabrejar
lang: Czech
word: mramorovat
lang: Finnish
word: marmoroida
lang: French
word: marbrer
lang: Galician
word: xaspear
lang: German
word: marmorieren
lang: Irish
word: marmaraigh
lang: Spanish
word: jaspear
lang: Swedish
word: marmorera
lang: Turkish
word: ebrulamak
lang: Turkish
word: harelemek
lang: Finnish
word: marmoroitua