Alternative forms

• styen (Northumbria)
• stean (UK, dialectal)

Noun

stone (countable and uncountable, plural stones or (UK, as unit of weight) stone)Category:English lemmas#STONECategory:English nouns#STONECategory:English uncountable nouns#STONECategory:English countable nouns#STONECategory:English countable nouns#STONECategory:English nouns with irregular plurals#STONECategory:English indeclinable nouns#STONECategory:English entries with incorrect language header#STONECategory:Pages with entries#STONECategory:Pages with 5 entries#STONE

2. (uncountableCategory:English uncountable nouns#STONE, geologyCategory:en:Geology#STONE) A hard earthen substance that can form rocks; especially, such substance when regarded as a building material.

   Synonym: rock

   • c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], page 143, column 2:

     Toad, that vnder cold ſtone, / Dayes and Nights ha’s thirty one: / Sweltred Venom ſleeping got, / Boyle thou firſt i’th’ charmed pot.

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   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, John 20:1:

     The first day of the weeke, commeth Mary Magdalene earely when it was yet darke, vnto the Sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the Sepulchre.

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   • 1858, Edward Thornton, A Gazetteer of the Territories Under the Government of the East India Company and of the Native States on the Continent of India‎, W. H. Allen & Co., page 22:

     It is about 2,500 yards in circuit, is built of red stone, and, according to Von Orlich, is now " a bastioned quinquangle ; the ancient walls with semicircular bastions face the two streams ; the land side is quite regular, and consists of two bastions, and a half-bastion with three ravelins," and stands higher than any ground in face of it.

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   • 2013 June 8, “Obama goes troll-hunting”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 55:

     The solitary, lumbering trolls of Scandinavian mythology would sometimes be turned to stone by exposure to sunlight. Barack Obama is hoping that several measures announced on June 4th will have a similarly paralysing effect on their modern incarnation, the patent troll.

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4. (countableCategory:English countable nouns#STONE, geologyCategory:en:Geology#STONE) A piece of such material: a block of stone, rock or a pebble.
   • 1960 March, “Notes and News: Cemetery Station Re-Erected as a Church”, in Railway Magazine, page 215:

     A railway station which formerly stood a few miles from Sydney has recently been demolished, stone by stone, and has been re-erected as a church in the Australian Capital Territory of Canberra, about 200 miles away.

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6. A gemstone, a jewel, especially a diamond.
   • c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv], page 180, column 1:

     […] Ineſtimable Stones, vnvalewed Iewels […]

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8. (BritishCategory:British English#STONE) A unit of weight equal to 14 pounds (≈6.3503 kilograms), formerly used for various commodities (wool, cheese, etc.), but now principally used for personal weight. Abbreviated as st.

   British people measure their weight in stones and pounds. I weigh eight stone five.

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   • 1843, The Penny Cyclopaedia, page 202:

     Seven pounds make a clove, 2 cloves a stone, 2 stone a tod, 6+¹⁄₂ tods a wey, 2 weys a sack, 12 sacks a last. […] It is to be observed here that a sack is 13 tods, and a tod 28 pounds, so that the sack is 364 pounds.

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   • 1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume IV, page 209:

     Generally, however, the stone or petra, almost always of 14 lbs., is used, the tod of 28 lbs., and the sack of thirteen stones.

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   • 1992 October 3, Edwina Currie, Diary:

     Weighed myself at the gym and have hit 10st 8lb, a sure sign of things getting out of control—so I can’t even console myself with a chocolate biscuit.

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10. (botanyCategory:en:Botany#STONE) The central part of some fruits, particularly drupes; consisting of the seed and a hard endocarp layer.

    Synonyms: pit, seed pit; (botany) pyrena, pyrene

    Hyponyms: cherry pit, peach pit

    Near-synonym: pip

    a peach stone

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12. (medicineCategory:en:Medicine#STONE) A hard, stone-like deposit.
    • 2016 September 26, James Hamblin, “A Health Benefit of Roller Coasters”, in The Atlantic‎:

      The pain of passing a larger stone is often compared to child birth.

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    Synonym: calculus

    Hyponyms: kidney stone, nephrolith, gallstone, cholelith, sialolith, urolith

14. (board gamesCategory:en:Board games#STONE) A playing piece made of any hard material, used in various board games such as backgammon and go.
15. A dull light grey or beige, like that of some stones.

    stone:  

16. (curlingCategory:en:Curling#STONE) A 42-pound, precisely shaped piece of granite with a handle attached, which is bowled down the ice.
17. A monument to the dead; a gravestone or tombstone.
    • 1717, Alexander Pope, “Eloisa to Abelard”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume II, London: […] J. Wright, for Lawton Gilliver […], published 1717, →OCLC, page 434:

      Amid that scene, if ſome relenting eye
      Glance on the ſtone where our cold reliques lie.

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    • 2013 November 25, Zayn Malik, “Story of My Life”, in Midnight Memories, Columbia Records; Syco Music:

      It seems to me that when I die / These words will be written on my stone […]

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18. (obsoleteCategory:English terms with obsolete senses#STONE) A mirror, or its glass.
    • c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii], page 309, column 1:

      She's dead as earth: Lend me a Looking-glaſſe; / If that her breath will miſt or ſtaine the ſtone, / Why then ſhe liues.

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19. (obsoleteCategory:English terms with obsolete senses#STONE) A testicle.
    • c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii], page 56, column 1:

      […] and yet I warrant it had vpon it brow, a bumpe as big as a young Cockrels ſtone?

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    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Deuteronomy 23:1:

      Hee that is wounded in the ſtones, or hath his priuie member cut off, ſhall not enter into the Congregation of the Lord.

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    • 1750, W[illiam] Ellis, The Country Housewife's Family Companion […] , London: James Hodges; B. Collins, →OCLC, page 157:

      To make Capons […] ſome for this Purpoſe make it their Buſineſs after Harveſt-time to go to Markets for buying up Chickens, and between Michaelmas and All-hollantide caponize the Cocks, when they have got large enough to have Stones of ſuch a Bigneſs that they may be pulled out; for if they are too little, it can't be done.

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20. (printingCategory:en:Printing#STONE, historicalCategory:English terms with historical senses#STONE) 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.

    Synonym: imposing stone

    • 1965, George Murray, The Madhouse on Madison Street, page 38:

      The Chief called the makeup editor to the stone, pointed to the story which had caught his eye, and suggested a fairly simple remake.

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