stone

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English[edit]

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Stones.

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English stan, ston, from Old English stān, from Proto-Germanic *stainaz (compare Dutch steen, German Stein), from Proto-Indo-European *st(y)oy- (compare Latin stiria (“icicle”), Russian стена (stená, “wall”), Ancient Greek στῖον (stîon, “pebble”), στέαρ (stear, “tallow”), Persian ستون (sotun, “pillar”), Albanian shtëng (“hardened or pressed matter”), Sanskrit स्त्यायते (styāyate, “it hardens”)).

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

stone (countable and uncountable, plural stones or stone) (see usage notes)

  1. (uncountable) A hard earthen substance that can form large rocks and boulders.
    • 2013 June 8, “Obama goes troll-hunting”, The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 55: 
      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.
  2. A small piece of stone, a pebble.
  3. A gemstone, a jewel, especially a diamond.
    • Shakespeare
      inestimable stones, unvalued jewels
  4. (UK, plural: stone) A unit of mass equal to 14 pounds. Used to measure the weights of people, animals, cheese, wool, etc. 1 stone ≈ 6.3503 kilograms
    • 1843, The Penny Cyclopaedia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, page 202:
      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.
    • 1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume 4, page 209:
      Generally, however, the stone or petra, almost always of 14 lbs., is used, the tod of 28 lbs., and the sack of thirteen stones.
  5. (botany) The central part of some fruits, particularly drupes; consisting of the seed and a hard endocarp layer.
    a peach stone
  6. (medicine) A hard, stone-like deposit.
    kidney stone
  7. (board games) A playing piece made of any hard material, used in various board games such as backgammon, and go.
  8. A dull light grey or beige, like that of some stones.
    stone colour:    
  9. (curling) A 42-pound, precisely shaped piece of granite with a handle attached, which is bowled down the ice.
  10. A monument to the dead; a gravestone.
    • Alexander Pope
      Should some relenting eye / Glance on the stone where our cold relics lie.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Gray to this entry?)
  11. (obsolete) A mirror, or its glass.
    • Shakespeare
      Lend me a looking-glass; / If that her breath will mist or stain the stone, / Why, then she lives.
  12. (obsolete) A testicle.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)
  13. (dated, printing) 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; also called imposing stone.

Usage notes[edit]

All countable senses use the plural stones except the British unit of mass, which uses the invariant plural stone.

Synonyms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Terms derived from the noun

Translations[edit]

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked

Verb[edit]

stone (third-person singular simple present stones, present participle stoning, simple past and past participle stoned)

  1. (transitive) To pelt with stones, especially to kill by pelting with stones.
    She got stoned to death after they found her.
  2. (transitive) To remove a stone from (fruit etc.).
  3. (intransitive) To form a stone during growth, with reference to fruit etc.
  4. (transitive, slang) To intoxicate, especially with narcotics. (Usually in passive)

Synonyms[edit]

Translations[edit]

Adjective[edit]

stone (not comparable)

  1. Constructed of stone.
    stone walls
  2. Having the appearance of stone.
    stone pot
  3. Of a dull light grey or beige, like that of some stones.
  4. (African American Vernacular) Used as an intensifier.
    She is one stone fox.
    • 1994, Born Bad: Stories:
      Yeah, he's a stone fuck–up. But he's stand–up, too, don't forget that.
    • 1999, Mercedes Lackey, Larry Dixon, The Chrome Borne:
      If travel was this difficult, it was going to make escaping a stone bitch.
    • 2001, Andrew H. Vachss, Pain Management:
      “And I got the best metal man in the business going for me, too.” “This job's going to be a stone motherfucker,” Flacco said
    • 2004, K'Wan Foye, Street dreams, page 175:
      The man who had broken up their little party was a stone gangsta.
    • 2007, David Housewright, Dead Boyfriends, page 178:
      Back then most men would have described you as being a stone babe.
    • 2007, J. D. Robb, Born In Death:
      Her widower father married my stone bitch of a mother when I was about fourteen.
    • 2008, A. James, St. Martin's Academy: The Gifted Rule, page 64:
      “Well, Bradley Wreede told Moiré George who told Julia Nickols who told Katie Kimber who told that big stone dude who told...."
    • 2009, John Lutz, Night Victims, page 307:
      He might be a stone killer who simply doesn't care if his victim's alive or dead at the time of disfigurement.

Translations[edit]

Adverb[edit]

stone (not comparable)

  1. As a stone (used with following adjective).
    My father is stone deaf. This soup is stone cold.
  2. (slang) Absolutely, completely (used with following adjective).
    I went stone crazy after she left.

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

terms derived from "stone"

Related terms[edit]

terms related to "stone"

See also[edit]

Statistics[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

French[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

stone (masculine and feminine, plural stones)

  1. stoned (high on drugs)
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