
[Middle English, from Old English stān.]
For more information on stone, visit Britannica.com.
mass BI ⅛ hundredweight = 14 lb (6.350 3~ kg). See hundredweight for scales. For centuries the major unit in the UK for expressing a person's ‘weight’ (with pound the minor), the stone was removed from official UK measures in 1985.The UK Weights and Measures Act 1985 explicitly excluded from use for trade the bushell, cental, chain, drachm, dram, fluid drachm, furlong, grain, hundredweight, ounce apoth., peck, pennyweight, quarter, quintal, rood, scruple, stone, ton, the square mile, cubic inch, cubic foot, cubic yard, and the term ‘metric ton’. However, the legal status of the bushell, fluid drachm, and peck had been repealed, along with all apothecaries' units and troy units other than ounce, by Order in 1970. Besides the remaining BI units and the simple SI units, the Act included the kilometre, decimetre, centimetre and millimetre, the square metre, square decimetre, square centimetre and square millimetre, the hectare and decare along with the are, the cubic metre, cubic decimetre and cubic centimetre, the hectolitre decilitre, centilitre and millilitre, the tonne (or ‘metric tonne’), kilogram, hectogram, milligram and carat (metric). All had been included in the similar Act of 1963, but with some variation of name: -gram was -gramme, decare was dekare, the tonne appeared only as metric ton.
weight, force See gravitational system.
geology A specific particle size, typically between boulder and gravel in size, of diameter 1 to 8 in (25.4 to 203.2 mm).
Flat surface or table originally made of stone, hence the name; used in manual composition to compose type.
Idioms beginning with stone:
stone cold
stone deaf
stone's throw, a
See also cast in stone; cast the first stone; flat (stone) broke; heart of stone; leave no stone unturned; rolling stone gathers no moss; run into a stone wall.
Large boulders and prehistoric standing stones often attracted folklore; there were also widespread beliefs about the protective powers of small holed stones, hagstones, snakestones, thunderstones, and geodes called eaglestones. From antiquity through the Middle Ages and up to the 17th century, much was written on the medicinal and magical powers of precious stones, though naturally only the wealthy could make use of them.
The only belief concerning ordinary stones in general was that they grew in the soil and then rose to the surface. This was widely held, as correspondents to N&Q showed on several occasions in the 19th century; many countrymen insisted it was no use having stones picked off one's fields, because the land produced them, and there would soon be as many as ever. This was still being said in Staffordshire in the 1960s. At Blaxhall (Suffolk) a five-ton boulder is a famous local marvel, alleged to have grown from the size of a man's two fists in the course of the 19th century; the Leper Stone outside Newport (Cambridgeshire) and the Hoston Stone at Humberstone (Leicestershire) are said to be rising slowly out of the ground; one tale about the huge Rudston standing stone (Humberside) is that it grew up in a single night (FLS News 26 (1997), 13; 27 (1998), 8; 28 (1998), 6-7). Another theory was that ‘pudding-stone’, a conglomerate of pebbles, was a ‘mother-stone’ or ‘breeding-stone’ from which a number of little pebbles would be born and grow larger.
See also TURNING THE DEVIL'S STONE, HANGMAN's STONE.
Any type of rock that has been selected or processed by cutting, shaping, or sizing for use in building construction or for decorative purposes; see brownstone, cobblestone, dimension stone, fieldstone, flagstone, freestone, granite, limestone, marble, pudding stone, rib vault, rusticated stone, sandstone, soapstone.
| Stondon, Ston Easton, Stokesley | |
| Stonegrave, Stonehaven, Stonehenge |
To convert from stones (British) to:
pound (avoirdupois),
multiply by 14.
A single seed surrounded by a large hard shell and covered by pulp. A peach is an example of a stone fruit.
| stompie, stompers, stoke | |
| stone frigate, stone ginger, stoned |

Dansk (Danish)
n. - sten, ædelsten, vægtenhed
v. tr. - stene, udstene, udskure
adj. - sten-, af sten
adv. - helt, fuldstændig
idioms:
Nederlands (Dutch)
steen, pit, rots, edelsteen, gewichtsmaat (ongeveer 6, 35 kg), van steen, volkomen, stenigen, ontpitten, slijpen
Français (French)
n. - pierre, caillou, menhir, stèle, pierre (précieuse), (Bot) noyau, (Méd) calcul, (GB, Mes) = 6,35 kg
v. tr. - lapider, dénoyauter
adj. - de pierre, en pierre, en grès
adv. - de pierre
idioms:
Deutsch (German)
n. - Stein
v. - steinigen, mit Steinen bewerfen, entsteinen
adj. - steinern
adv. - völlig
idioms:
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - πέτρα, λιθάρι, λίθος, πετράδι, πολύτιμος λίθος, κουκούτσι, (Βρετ.) βάρος 6, 348 χιλιογράμμων
v. - λιθοβολώ, πετροβολώ, ξεκουκουτσιάζω, επιστρώνω με πέτρινες πλάκες
adj. - λίθινος, πέτρινος
adv. - εντελώς, ολοσχερώς
idioms:
Italiano (Italian)
lapidare, pietra, nocciolo, mattone, pietroso
idioms:
Português (Portuguese)
n. - pedra (f), caroço (m)
v. - apedrejar
adj. - de pedra
adv. - completamente
idioms:
Русский (Russian)
камень, драгоценный камень, косточка (плода), надгробная плита, градина, жернов, стоун (= 14 фунтов), светло-серый или бежевый цвет, каменная болезнь, каменный, керамический, гончарный, убежденный, побить камнями, облицовывать или мостить камнем, вынимать косточки (из плодов), точить, обтачивать или шлифовать камнем
idioms:
Español (Spanish)
n. - piedra, lápida, grano, hueso, pepita, muela, granizo
v. tr. - apedrear, lapidar
adj. - de piedra, pétreo
adv. - completamente, totalmente
idioms:
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - sten, viktenhet, kärna
v. - stena, kasta sten på, kärna ur (frukt), klä med sten
adj. - sten-
adv. - sten-
中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
石, 石块, 石头, 纪念碑, 石材, 墓石, 投扔石子, 铺石头, 石的, 石制的, 完全地, 十足地
idioms:
中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 石, 石塊, 石頭, 紀念碑, 石材, 墓石
v. tr. - 投扔石子, 鋪石頭
adj. - 石的, 石制的
adv. - 完全地, 十足地
idioms:
한국어 (Korean)
n. - 돌, 돌맹이, 보석
v. tr. - ~에 돌을 던지다, ~에 돌을 쌓다, 씨(핵)를 뽑다
adj. - 돌의, 완전한, 오지 그릇의
adv. - 완전히
idioms:
日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 石, 石材, 石製の, 宝石, 墓石, 臼石, ひょう, 種, 敷石, こま
adv. - 完全に
v. - 石を投げ付ける, 種を取る
idioms:
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) حجر, حجر كريم, نواة, وحدة وزن, بلاطه ضريح (فعل) رجم بالحجارة, نزع النوى عن, بلط بالحجارة (صفه) حجري (ظرف) جامدا
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - אבן, גלעין, אבן-חן, יהלום, מצבה, ברד, יחידת-משקל השווה ל-53.6 ק"ג, צבע חום-אפור
v. tr. - סקל, רגם, גלען, הוציא הגלעינים
adj. - סקל, רגם, גלען, הוציא הגלעינים
adv. - בנוי באבן
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