whetstone
See also: Whetstone
EnglishEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Middle English whestone, whetston, whetesston, from Old English hwetstān, from Proto-West Germanic *hwattjastain (“whetstone”). Equivalent to whet (“to sharpen”) + stone.
PronunciationEdit
- (US) IPA(key): /ˈwɛtˌstoʊn/, [ˈwɛʔˌstoʊn]
- (US) IPA(key): /ˈʍɛtˌstoʊn/, [ˈʍɛʔˌstoʊn] (without wine-whine merger)
- (UK) IPA(key): /wɛtstəʊn/
NounEdit
whetstone (plural whetstones)
- A sharpening stone; a hard stone or piece of synthetically bonded hard minerals that has been formed with at least one flat surface, used to sharpen or hone an edged tool.
- c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], line 192:
- [T]he dullness of the fool is the whetstone of the wits.
- 1922, Virginia Woolf, Jacob's Room, Vintage Classics, paperback edition, page 88-89
- It was as if a stone were ground to dust; as if white sparks flew from a livid whetstone, which was his spine; as if the switchback railway, having swooped to the depths, fell, fell, fell.
- (computing) A benchmark for evaluating the power and performance of a computer.
- (figurative) A stimulant.
Related termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
stone used to hone tools
|
VerbEdit
whetstone (third-person singular simple present whetstones, present participle whetstoning, simple past and past participle whetstoned)
- (transitive) To sharpen with a whetstone.