stone Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a lump or mass of hard consolidated mineral matter
    rock.
    • he threw a rock at me
  2. noun building material consisting of a piece of rock hewn in a definite shape for a special purpose
    • he wanted a special stone to mark the site
  3. noun material consisting of the aggregate of minerals like those making up the Earth's crust
    rock.
    • that mountain is solid rock
    • stone is abundant in New England and there are many quarries
  4. noun a crystalline rock that can be cut and polished for jewelry
    gemstone; gem.
    • he had the gem set in a ring for his wife
    • she had jewels made of all the rarest stones
  5. noun an avoirdupois unit used to measure the weight of a human body; equal to 14 pounds
    • a heavy chap who must have weighed more than twenty stone
  6. noun the hard inner (usually woody) layer of the pericarp of some fruits (as peaches or plums or cherries or olives) that contains the seed
    endocarp; pit.
    • you should remove the stones from prunes before cooking
  7. noun United States jurist who was named chief justice of the United States Supreme Court in 1941 by Franklin D. Roosevelt (1872-1946)
    Harlan F. Stone; Harlan Stone; Harlan Fisk Stone.
  8. noun United States filmmaker (born in 1946)
    Oliver Stone.
  9. noun United States feminist and suffragist (1818-1893)
    Lucy Stone.
  10. noun United States journalist who advocated liberal causes (1907-1989)
    I. F. Stone; Isidor Feinstein Stone.
  11. noun United States jurist who served on the United States Supreme Court as chief justice (1872-1946)
    Harlan Fiske Stone.
  12. noun United States architect (1902-1978)
    Edward Durell Stone.
  13. noun a lack of feeling or expression or movement
    • he must have a heart of stone
    • her face was as hard as stone
  14. verb kill by throwing stones at
    lapidate.
    • People wanted to stone the woman who had a child out of wedlock
  15. verb remove the pits from
    pit.
    • pit plums and cherries
  16. adjective satellite of any of various dull tannish or grey colors

WordNet

Stone noun
Etymology
OE. ston, stan, AS. stan; akin to OS. & OFries. sten, D. steen, G. stein, Icel. steinn, Sw. sten, Dan. steen, Goth. stains, Russ. stiena a wall, Gr. , , a pebble. *167. Cf. Steen.
Definitions
  1. Concreted earthy or mineral matter; also, any particular mass of such matter; as, a house built of stone; the boy threw a stone; pebbles are rounded stones. "Dumb as a stone." Chaucer.
    They had brick for stone, and slime . . . for mortar. Gen. xi. 3.
    ✍ In popular language, very large masses of stone are called rocks; small masses are called stones; and the finer kinds, gravel, or sand, or grains of sand. Stone is much and widely used in the construction of buildings of all kinds, for walls, fences, piers, abutments, arches, monuments, sculpture, and the like.
  2. A precious stone; a gem. "Many a rich stone." Chaucer. "Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels." Shak.
  3. Something made of stone. Specifically: - (a) The glass of a mirror; a mirror. Obs.
    Lend me a looking-glass; If that her breath will mist or stain the stone, Why, then she lives. Shak.
    (b) A monument to the dead; a gravestone. Gray.
    Should some relenting eye Glance on the where our cold relics lie. Pope.
  4. (Med.) A calculous concretion, especially one in the kidneys or bladder; the disease arising from a calculus.
  5. One of the testes; a testicle. Shak.
  6. (Bot.) The hard endocarp of drupes; as, the stone of a cherry or peach. See Illust. of Endocarp.
  7. A weight which legally is fourteen pounds, but in practice varies with the article weighed. Eng. ✍ The stone of butchers' meat or fish is reckoned at 8 lbs.; of cheese, 16 lbs.; of hemp, 32 lbs.; of glass, 5 lbs.
  8. Fig.: Symbol of hardness and insensibility; torpidness; insensibility; as, a heart of stone.
    I have not yet forgot myself to stone. Pope.
  9. (Print.) 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; -- called also imposing stone. ✍ Stone is used adjectively or in composition with other words to denote made of stone, containing a stone or stones, employed on stone, or, more generally, of or pertaining to stone or stones; as, stone fruit, or stone-fruit; stone-hammer, or stone hammer; stone falcon, or stone-falcon. Compounded with some adjectives it denotes a degree of the quality expressed by the adjective equal to that possessed by a stone; as, stone-dead, stone-blind, stone-cold, stone-still, etc.
Stone transitive verb
Etymology
From Stone, n.: cf. AS. stnan, Goth. stainjan.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Stoned ; present participle & verbal noun Stoning
Definitions
  1. To pelt, beat, or kill with stones.
    And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Acts vii. 59.
  2. To make like stone; to harden.
    O perjured woman! thou dost stone my heart. Shak.
  3. To free from stones; also, to remove the seeds of; as, to stone a field; to stone cherries; to stone raisins.
  4. To wall or face with stones; to line or fortify with stones; as, to stone a well; to stone a cellar.
  5. To rub, scour, or sharpen with a stone. get stoned, be stoned?

Webster 1913