IVORY

bone, ivory, pearl, off-white

(noun) a shade of white the color of bleached bones

ivory, tusk

(noun) a hard smooth ivory colored dentine that makes up most of the tusks of elephants and walruses

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology

Noun

ivory (countable and uncountable, plural ivories)

(uncountable) The hard white form of dentin which forms the tusks of elephants, walruses and other animals.

A creamy white color, the color of ivory.

Something made from or resembling ivory.

(collective, singular or in plural) The teeth.

(collective, singular or in plural) The keys of a piano.

Coordinate term: ebony

(slang) A white person.

Synonym: Thesaurus:white person

Adjective

ivory (not comparable)

Made of ivory.

Resembling or having the colour of ivory.

Etymology

Proper noun

Ivory

A surname.

A male given name from English.

A female given name from English.

Source: Wiktionary


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



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Word of the Day

18 June 2024

PARADE

(noun) an extended (often showy) succession of persons or things; “a parade of strollers on the mall”; “a parade of witnesses”


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Coffee Trivia

Coffee has initially been a food – chewed, not sipped. Early African tribes consume coffee by grinding the berries together, adding some animal fat, and rolling the treats into tiny edible energy balls.

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