Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A smoky-yellow or smoky-brown variety of rock-crystal or quartz, found in great perfection on the Cairngorm mountain in Scotland and in many other localities.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- (Min.) A smoky yellow or brown variety of rock crystal, or crystallized quartz, found especially, in the mountain of Cairngorm, in Scotland.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a smoky yellow or brown quartz
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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Toni's and Jos's were conventional longswords, carried in long slender cases that looked like instrument cases, but Paul carried only an elegant sword cane, an antique, ebony with a silver ferrule and a large cairngorm set into the silver ball-handle.
Spirits White As Lightning Lackey, Mercedes 2001
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The cairngorm brooch he had given her for her birthday was there.
Drums of Autumn Gabaldon, Diana 1997
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Come to visit the wounded, he was dressed for the occasion in plum velvet breeches with stockings to match, immaculate linen, and-to show solidarity with the troops, no doubt-a coat and waistcoat in Cameron tartan, with a subsidiary plaid looped over one shoulder through a cairngorm brooch.
Dragonfly in Amber Gabaldon, Diana 1992
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Alice drew Hamish aside and showed him a silver and cairngorm ring she was wearing on a string around her neck.
Death of a Gossip Beaton, M. C. 1985
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A friend, he explained, had promised to meet him in that place; and though the shopwoman plainly doubted his veracity, and kept a sharp eye that he did not take to his heels with the cairngorm, she did not go so far as to suggest his removing himself from the zone of temptation.
The Ashiel mystery A Detective Story Charles Bryce
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It was difficult now to continue the pursuit unobserved: and Gimblet became absorbed in the contemplation of an enormous cairngorm, which was masquerading as an article of personal adornment in the window of the last outlying shop.
The Ashiel mystery A Detective Story Charles Bryce
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In repose the Highlander's eye was as clear as a cairngorm and as cold, but when it fell upon John Broom it took a twinkle not quite unlike the twinkle in the one eye of the sailor; and then, to his amazement, this grand creature beckoned to John Broom with a rather dirty hand.
Tales from Many Sources Vol. V Various
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For ten long minutes they stood talking, driving poor Gimblet to the desperate expedient of entering the shop and demanding a closer acquaintance with the cairngorm.
The Ashiel mystery A Detective Story Charles Bryce
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According to Mr E.H. Cunningham-Craig, the mineral occurs in crystals lining cavities in highly-inclined veins of a fine-grained granite running through the coarser granite of the main mass: Shallow pits were formerly dug in the kaolinized granite for sake of the cairngorm and the mineral was also found as pebbles in the bed of the river Avon.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4 "Bulgaria" to "Calgary" Various
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The feet of the various species of grouse and owls are capped with silver or gold (in which is set a cairngorm), the toes tipped, or the tarsus banded with silver or gold, to form clasps or brooches.
mollusque commented on the word cairngorm
She wandered the prairie at will, though never strayed far, and came home running if she heard a wolf howl, her fine big cairngorm eyes wide with fear.
--Nellie L. McClung, 1935, Clearing in the West: My Own Story
November 25, 2007
chained_bear commented on the word cairngorm
"... he was dressed for the occasion in plum velvet breeches with stockings to match, immaculate linen, and—to show solidarity with the troops, no doubt—a coat and waistcoat in Cameron tartan, with a subsidiary plaid looped over one shoulder through a cairngorm brooch."
—Diana Gabaldon, Dragonfly in Amber (NY: Delacorte Press, 1991), 649
January 2, 2010