n.
- Concreted earthy or mineral matter; rock.
- Such concreted matter of a particular type. Often used in combination: sandstone; soapstone.
- A small piece of rock.
- Rock or a piece of rock shaped or finished for a particular purpose, especially:
- A piece of rock that is used in construction: a coping stone; a paving stone.
- A gravestone or tombstone.
- A grindstone, millstone, or whetstone.
- A milestone or boundary.
- A gem or precious stone.
- Something, such as a hailstone, resembling a stone in shape or hardness.
- Botany. The hard covering enclosing the seed in certain fruits, such as the cherry, plum, or peach.
- Pathology. A mineral concretion in an organ, such as the kidney or gallbladder, or other body part; a calculus.
- pl., stone. (Abbr. st.) A unit of weight in Great Britain, 14 pounds (6.4 kilograms).
- Printing. A table with a smooth surface on which page forms are composed.
- Relating to or made of stone: a stone wall.
- Made of stoneware or earthenware.
- Complete; utter: a stone liar.
Completely; utterly: stone cold; standing stone still.
tr.v., stoned, ston·ing, stones.
- To hurl or throw stones at, especially to kill with stones.
- To remove the stones or pits from.
- To furnish, fit, pave, or line with stones.
- To rub on or with a stone in order to polish or sharpen.
- Obsolete. To make hard or indifferent.
[Middle English, from Old English stān.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
