Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A piece of soft sandstone used for scouring the wooden decks of a ship.
- transitive verb To scrub or scour with a piece of soft sandstone.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To scrub with holystone, as the deck of a vessel.
- noun A soft sandstone used by seamen for scrubbing the decks of a ship. See the extract.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb (Naut.) To scrub with a holystone, as the deck of a vessel.
- noun (Naut.) A stone used by seamen for scrubbing the decks of ships.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun nautical A
block of softsandstone used forscrubbing thewooden decks of aship , usually with sand and seawater; sometimes called abible . - verb transitive To
scrub thedecks with a holystone.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb scrub with a holystone
- noun a soft sandstone used for scrubbing the decks of a ship
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The holystone is a large, soft stone, smooth on the bottom, with long ropes attached to each end, by which the crew keep it sliding fore and aft, over the wet, sanded decks.
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The holystone is a large, soft stone, smooth on the bottom, with long ropes attached to each end, by which the crew keep it sliding fore and aft, over the wet, sanded decks.
Two years before the mast, and twenty-four years after: a personal narrative 1869
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The holystone is a large, soft stone, smooth on the bottom, with long ropes attached to each end, by which the crew keep it sliding fore and aft, over the wet, sanded decks.
Two Years Before the Mast Richard Henry Dana 1848
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The holystone is a large, soft stone, smooth on the bottom, with long ropes attached to each end, by which the crew keep it sliding fore and aft over the wet sanded decks.
Two Years Before the Mast Richard Henry Dana 1848
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For similar reasons he worked and re-worked the story of Galadriel, thinking to make her perfect with emery and holystone, but in truth only reducing her to a plaster saint.
The taste for magic superversive 2008
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“Franklin, why in hell's name are you taking one hundred and thirty-four men?” rasped the holystone across rough wood.
The Terror Simmons, Dan 2007
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Ross's voice was as rough as a holystone dragged across a splintered deck.
The Terror Simmons, Dan 2007
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If my boot should leave a stain on the marble, George must not holystone it away.
Mark Twain Ron Powers 2005
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If my boot should leave a stain on the marble, George must not holystone it away.
Mark Twain Ron Powers 2005
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No more to be trampled and stamped upon with shifty, sloppy feet — no more to be scrubbed and scored with sand and holystone; painted white, it creaks gratefully every time it swings — the symbol of security, the first outward and visible sign of home, the guardian of the sacred rights of private property, the embodiment of the exclusive.
skipvia commented on the word holystone
Sandstone rocks used to scrub the wooden decks of sailing vessels, so named because the deckhands appeared to be praying when they were using it.
October 15, 2007
reesetee commented on the word holystone
Great word!
October 15, 2007
chained_bear commented on the word holystone
I'm adding it as an honorary word to my Scriptie: Master and Commander, because though I've never heard this word before, they use one in the movie. (I always wondered what the hell it was! Thanks, skipv!)
October 15, 2007
yarb commented on the word holystone
They said her decks were as white as snow,-- holystoned every morning, like a man-of-war's...
- Richard Henry Dana Jr., Two Years Before the Mast, ch. 20
September 6, 2008