Stone eater

Stone Stone, n. [OE. ston, stan, AS. st[=a]n; akin to OS. & OFries. st[=e]n, D. steen, G. stein, Icel. steinn, Sw. sten, Dan. steen, Goth. stains, Russ. stiena a wall, Gr. ?, ?, a pebble. [root]167. Cf. {Steen}.] 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. [1913 Webster]

They had brick for stone, and slime . . . for mortar. --Gen. xi. 3. [1913 Webster]

Note: 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. [1913 Webster]

2. A precious stone; a gem. ``Many a rich stone.'' --Chaucer. ``Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels.'' --Shak. [1913 Webster]

3. Something made of stone. Specifically: [1913 Webster] (a) The glass of a mirror; a mirror. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]

Lend me a looking-glass; If that her breath will mist or stain the stone, Why, then she lives. --Shak. [1913 Webster] (b) A monument to the dead; a gravestone. --Gray. [1913 Webster]

Should some relenting eye Glance on the where our cold relics lie. --Pope. [1913 Webster]

4. (Med.) A calculous concretion, especially one in the kidneys or bladder; the disease arising from a calculus. [1913 Webster]

5. One of the testes; a testicle. --Shak. [1913 Webster]

6. (Bot.) The hard endocarp of drupes; as, the stone of a cherry or peach. See Illust. of {Endocarp}. [1913 Webster]

7. A weight which legally is fourteen pounds, but in practice varies with the article weighed. [Eng.] [1913 Webster]

Note: The stone of butchers' meat or fish is reckoned at 8 lbs.; of cheese, 16 lbs.; of hemp, 32 lbs.; of glass, 5 lbs. [1913 Webster]

8. Fig.: Symbol of hardness and insensibility; torpidness; insensibility; as, a heart of stone. [1913 Webster]

I have not yet forgot myself to stone. --Pope. [1913 Webster]

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}. [1913 Webster]

Note: 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. [1913 Webster]

{Atlantic stone}, ivory. [Obs.] ``Citron tables, or Atlantic stone.'' --Milton.

{Bowing stone}. Same as {Cromlech}. --Encyc. Brit.

{Meteoric stones}, stones which fall from the atmosphere, as after the explosion of a meteor.

{Philosopher's stone}. See under {Philosopher}.

{Rocking stone}. See {Rocking-stone}.

{Stone age}, a supposed prehistoric age of the world when stone and bone were habitually used as the materials for weapons and tools; -- called also {flint age}. The {bronze age} succeeded to this.

{Stone bass} (Zo["o]l.), any one of several species of marine food fishes of the genus {Serranus} and allied genera, as {Serranus Couchii}, and {Polyprion cernium} of Europe; -- called also {sea perch}.

{Stone biter} (Zo["o]l.), the wolf fish.

{Stone boiling}, a method of boiling water or milk by dropping hot stones into it, -- in use among savages. --Tylor.

{Stone borer} (Zo["o]l.), any animal that bores stones; especially, one of certain bivalve mollusks which burrow in limestone. See {Lithodomus}, and {Saxicava}.

{Stone bramble} (Bot.), a European trailing species of bramble ({Rubus saxatilis}).

{Stone-break}. [Cf. G. steinbrech.] (Bot.) Any plant of the genus {Saxifraga}; saxifrage.

{Stone bruise}, a sore spot on the bottom of the foot, from a bruise by a stone.

{Stone canal}. (Zo["o]l.) Same as {Sand canal}, under {Sand}.

{Stone cat} (Zo["o]l.), any one of several species of small fresh-water North American catfishes of the genus {Noturus}. They have sharp pectoral spines with which they inflict painful wounds.

{Stone coal}, hard coal; mineral coal; anthracite coal.

{Stone coral} (Zo["o]l.), any hard calcareous coral.

{Stone crab}. (Zo["o]l.) (a) A large crab ({Menippe mercenaria}) found on the southern coast of the United States and much used as food. (b) A European spider crab ({Lithodes maia}).

{Stone crawfish} (Zo["o]l.), a European crawfish ({Astacus torrentium}), by many writers considered only a variety of the common species ({A. fluviatilis}).

{Stone curlew}. (Zo["o]l.) (a) A large plover found in Europe ({Edicnemus crepitans}). It frequents stony places. Called also {thick-kneed plover} or {bustard}, and {thick-knee}. (b) The whimbrel. [Prov. Eng.] (c) The willet. [Local, U.S.]

{Stone crush}. Same as {Stone bruise}, above.

{Stone eater}. (Zo["o]l.) Same as {Stone borer}, above.

{Stone falcon} (Zo["o]l.), the merlin.

{Stone fern} (Bot.), a European fern ({Asplenium Ceterach}) which grows on rocks and walls.

{Stone fly} (Zo["o]l.), any one of many species of pseudoneuropterous insects of the genus {Perla} and allied genera; a perlid. They are often used by anglers for bait. The larv[ae] are aquatic.

{Stone fruit} (Bot.), any fruit with a stony endocarp; a drupe, as a peach, plum, or cherry.

{Stone grig} (Zo["o]l.), the mud lamprey, or pride.

{Stone hammer}, a hammer formed with a face at one end, and a thick, blunt edge, parallel with the handle, at the other, -- used for breaking stone.

{Stone hawk} (Zo["o]l.), the merlin; -- so called from its habit of sitting on bare stones.

{Stone jar}, a jar made of stoneware.

{Stone lily} (Paleon.), a fossil crinoid.

{Stone lugger}. (Zo["o]l.) See {Stone roller}, below.

{Stone marten} (Zo["o]l.), a European marten ({Mustela foina}) allied to the pine marten, but having a white throat; -- called also {beech marten}.

{Stone mason}, a mason who works or builds in stone.

{Stone-mortar} (Mil.), a kind of large mortar formerly used in sieges for throwing a mass of small stones short distances.

{Stone oil}, rock oil, petroleum.

{Stone parsley} (Bot.), an umbelliferous plant ({Seseli Labanotis}). See under {Parsley}.

{Stone pine}. (Bot.) A nut pine. See the Note under {Pine}, and {Pi[~n]on}.

{Stone pit}, a quarry where stones are dug.

{Stone pitch}, hard, inspissated pitch.

{Stone plover}. (Zo["o]l.) (a) The European stone curlew. (b) Any one of several species of Asiatic plovers of the genus {Esacus}; as, the large stone plover ({E. recurvirostris}). (c) The gray or black-bellied plover. [Prov. Eng.] (d) The ringed plover. (e) The bar-tailed godwit. [Prov. Eng.] Also applied to other species of limicoline birds.

{Stone roller}. (Zo["o]l.) (a) An American fresh-water fish ({Catostomus nigricans}) of the Sucker family. Its color is yellowish olive, often with dark blotches. Called also {stone lugger}, {stone toter}, {hog sucker}, {hog mullet}. (b) A common American cyprinoid fish ({Campostoma anomalum}); -- called also {stone lugger}.

{Stone's cast}, or {Stone's throw}, the distance to which a stone may be thrown by the hand; as, they live a stone's throw from each other.

{Stone snipe} (Zo["o]l.), the greater yellowlegs, or tattler. [Local, U.S.]

{Stone toter}. (Zo["o]l.) (a) See {Stone roller} (a), above. (b) A cyprinoid fish ({Exoglossum maxillingua}) found in the rivers from Virginia to {New York}. It has a three-lobed lower lip; -- called also {cutlips}.

{To leave no stone unturned}, to do everything that can be done; to use all practicable means to effect an object. [1913 Webster]