damascus : Idioms & Phrases

• a sword or scimiter, made chiefly at Damascus, having a variegated appearance of watering, and proverbial for excellence.

Webster 1913

• metal formed of thin bars or wires of iron and steel elaborately twisted and welded together; used for making gun barrels, etc., of high quality, in which the surface, when polished and acted upon by acid, has a damasc appearance.

Webster 1913

• noun a hard resilient steel often decorated and used for sword blades
  Damask steel.
  

WordNet

• . See Damask steel, under Damask, a.

Webster 1913

• noun a sudden turning point in a person's life (similar to the sudden conversion of the Apostle Paul on the road from Jerusalem to Damascus of arrest Christians)
  

WordNet