IVORIES
Noun
ivories
plural of ivory
Noun
ivories pl (plural only)
The keys of a piano.
The teeth.
Anagrams
• Orivesi
Source: Wiktionary
IVORY
I"vo*ry, n.; pl. Ivories. Etym: [OE. ivori, F. ivoire, fr. L. eboreus
made of ivory, fr. ebur, eboris, ivory, cf. Skr. ibha elephant. Cf.
Eburnean.]
1. The hard, white, opaque, fine-grained substance constituting the
tusks of the elephant. It is a variety of dentine, characterized by
the minuteness and close arrangement of the tubes, as also by their
double flexure. It is used in manufacturing articles of ornament or
utility.
Note: Ivory is the name commercially given not only to the substance
constituting the tusks of the elephant, but also to that of the tusks
of the hippopotamus and walrus, the hornlike tusk of the narwhal,
etc.
2. The tusks themselves of the elephant, etc.
3. Any carving executed in ivory. Mollett.
4. pl.
Definition: Teeth; as, to show one's ivories. [Slang] Ivory black. See
under Black, n.
– Ivory gull (Zoöl.), a white Arctic gull (Larus eburneus).
– Ivory nut (Bot.), the nut of a species of palm, the Phytephas
macroarpa, often as large as a hen's egg. When young the seed
contains a fluid, which gradually hardness into a whitish, close-
grained, albuminous substance, resembling the finest ivory in texture
and color, whence it is called vegetable ivory. It is wrought into
various articles, as buttons, chessmen, etc. The palm is found in New
Grenada. A smaller kind is the fruit of the Phytephas microarpa. The
nuts are known in commerce as Corosso nuts.
– Ivory palm (Bot.), the palm tree which produces ivory nuts.
– Ivory shell (Zoöl.), any species of Eburna, a genus of marine
gastropod shells, having a smooth surface, usually white with red or
brown spots.
– Vegetable ivory, the meat of the ivory nut. See Ivory nut
(above).
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition