Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Stone used in the construction of a hearth.
  • noun Family life; the home.
  • noun A soft stone or composition of pipe clay and pulverized stone used for scouring and whitening hearths or doorsteps.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To scour, as a floor, with hearthstone.
  • noun A stone forming a hearth.
  • noun Hence The fireside.
  • noun A soft kind of stone used to whiten door-steps, scour floors, etc.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Stone forming the hearth; hence, the fireside; home.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A flat stone used to form a hearth.
  • noun By extension: The fireside, home life.
  • noun A soft kind of stone used to whiten door-steps, scour floors, etc.
  • verb transitive To scour, as a floor, with hearthstone.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a stone that forms a hearth

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English hearth +‎ stone

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Examples

  • A lifeless man, lying outstretched on a certain hearthstone, might be found once in a house and awaken no special comment; but when this same discovery has been made twice, if not thrice, during the history of a single dwelling, one might surely be pardoned a distrust of its seemingly home-like appointments, and discern in its slowly darkening walls the presence of an evil which if left to itself might perish in the natural decay of the place, but which, if met and challenged, might strike again and make another blot on its thrice-crimsoned hearthstone.

    The Filigree Ball 1903

  • A hearthstone was a palm-sized crystal, oval in shape, that was bound by arcane magic to not only its bearer, but a particular place.

    WORLD OF WARCRAFT STORMRAGE Richard A. Knaak 2010

  • A hearthstone was a palm-sized crystal, oval in shape, that was bound by arcane magic to not only its bearer, but a particular place.

    WORLD OF WARCRAFT STORMRAGE Richard A. Knaak 2010

  • A hearthstone was a palm-sized crystal, oval in shape, that was bound by arcane magic to not only its bearer, but a particular place.

    WORLD OF WARCRAFT STORMRAGE Richard A. Knaak 2010

  • Gathered around her hearthstone was a large family of girls and boys who naturally added much brightness to the household.

    As I Remember Recollections of American Society during the Nineteenth Century Marian Gouverneur

  • The hearthstone was a big sheet of smooth gray sandstone.

    Her father`s daughter 1921

  • Their little feet tread the same pathway of instruction, their little hearts are warmed around the same hearthstone, which is radiant with a glow of love and truth emanating from the soul of the faithful, conscientious teacher.

    Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of North Carolina, for the Scholastic Years 1898-'99 to 1899-1900 Charles Harden 1896

  • And there on the hearthstone were the ashes, and reet i 'the middle on 'em the prent of a man's clog.

    More Tales of the Ridings Frederic William Moorman 1895

  • The hearthstone was a big sheet of smooth gray sandstone.

    Her Father's Daughter Gene Stratton-Porter 1893

  • The hearthstone is the corner-stone of civilization.

    The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Volume VIII. Interviews Robert Green Ingersoll 1866

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