different between marble vs stone

English

Etymology

From Middle English marble, marbre, from Anglo-Norman and Old French marbre, from Latin marmor, from Ancient Greek ???????? (mármaros), perhaps related to ????????? (marmáreos, “gleaming”). Much of the early classical marble came from the 'Marmaris' sea above the Aegean. The forms from French replaced Old English marma, which had previously been borrowed from Latin.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?m??b?l/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?m??b?l/
• Rhymes: -??(?)b?l
• Hyphenation: mar?ble

Noun

marble (countable and uncountable, plural marbles)

1. (uncountable, petrology) A rock of crystalline limestone. [from 12th c.]

   Hypernym: limestone

   • 1751, Thomas Morell (librettist), Jephtha:

     Open thy marble jaws, O tomb / And hide me, earth, in thy dark womb.

2. (countable, games) A small ball, originally of marble but now usually of glass or ceramic. [from 17th c.]
3. (in the plural, archaeology) Statues made from marble. [from 17th c.]
   • 1828, JT Smith, Nollekens and His Times, Century Hutchinson 1986, p. 164:

     [I]t was a portrait of the Library, though not strictly correct as to its contents, since all the best of the marbles displayed in various parts of the house were brought into the painting by the artist, who made it up into a picturesque composition according to his own taste.

Hyponyms

• (small ball): china, plaster

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

marble (third-person singular simple present marbles, present participle marbling, simple past and past participle marbled)

1. (transitive) To cause (something to have) the streaked or swirled appearance of certain types of marble, for example by mixing viscous ingredients incompletely, or by applying paint or other colorants unevenly.

   Synonym: marbleize

   • 1774, William Hutchinson, An excursion to the lakes in Westmoreland and Cumberland, August, 1773, page 29:

     The small clouds which chequered the sky, as they passed along, spread their flitting shadows on the distant mountains, and seemed to marble them; a beauty which I do not recollect has struck any painter.

   • 1899, Thirteenth Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor, volume 1, page 106:

     In the operation of marbling the edges of the books, [...]

2. (intransitive) To get or have the streaked or swirled appearance of certain types of marble, for example due to the incomplete mixing of viscous ingredients, or the uneven application of paint or other colorants.
   • 2007, Alicia Grosso, The Everything Soapmaking Book: Recipes and Techniques, page 125:

     Scent the entire batch and then color half with the blue colorant. Pour both parts back into your soap pot. Do not stir. Pour in a circular motion into a block mold. The pouring action will cause the soap to marble.

3. (transitive) To cause meat, usually beef, pork, or lamb, to be interlaced with fat so that its appearance resembles that of marble.

   Synonym: marbleize

   • 1848, Samuel D. Martin, in a letter to the Albany Cultivator, quoted in the Fourteenth Annual Report of the Ohio State Board of Agriculture (for the year 1859; published 1860), page 157:

     Their flesh is soft (tender), and they throw a portion of their fat among the lean so as to marble it. The beef is of a better quality and they take on fat much easier.

   • 1904, Annual Report of the Wisconsin State Board of Agriculture for the year 1903, page 309:

     The Merino sheep is likely to put his weight largely into tallow around the stomach, intestines and on his kidneys, instead of mixing fairly with the meat, instead of marbling the meat.

   • 2004, Mary Ellen Snodgrass, Encyclopedia of kitchen history, page 684:

     Either by forcing the lardoon out with a plunger, by pushing it with a knife point, or by trailing it behind the needle, the cook artificially marbles the meat. For French cooks intent on larding, traditionally, the choice fat was the lard gras (pork fat).

4. (intransitive, of meat, especially beef) To become interlaced with fat; (of fat) to interlace through meat.
   • 1999, Kathleen Jo Ryan, Deep in the heart of Texas: Texas ranchers in their own words, page 99:

     We've gone mostly to black bulls — Angus bulls because today the packers like black cattle. They seem to marble better.

   • 1972, Sondra Gotlieb, The Gourmet’s Canada, page 129:

     The exercising of the cattle causes the fat to marble right through the animal — and much of the flavour is found in the fat.

5. (by extension, figuratively) To lace or be laced throughout.
   • 1993, Susan Napier, Winter of Dreams, page 52:

     Was he the reason for the bitterness that seemed to marble her character?

   • 2004, Scott Bevan, Battle Lines: Australian Artists at War:

     'Nobody who has been to war ever talks about it,' he says. But then he does talk, and generously, mining his memory and following the vein of a life marbled with experience: 'I mean, I am in my nineties; […] '

Derived terms

• marbling

Related terms

• marmoreal

Translations

Adjective

marble (comparative more marble, superlative most marble)

1. Made of, or resembling, marble.

2. (figuratively) Cold; hard; unfeeling.

Further reading

• marble on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• marble at OneLook Dictionary Search
• marble in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• Ambler, Balmer, Blamer, ambler, blamer, lamber, ramble

English

Etymology

From Middle English stone, ston, stan, from Old English st?n, from Proto-West Germanic *stain, from Proto-Germanic *stainaz (compare Dutch steen, German Stein, Danish and Swedish sten, Norwegian stein), from Proto-Indo-European *steyh?- (“to stiffen”) (compare Russian ?????? (stená, “wall”), Ancient Greek ???? (stía, “pebble”), ????? (stéar, “tallow”), Persian ????? (sot?n, “pillar”), Albanian shtëng (“hardened or pressed matter”), Sanskrit ????????? (sty?yate, “it hardens”)). Doublet of stein.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /st??n/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /sto?n/
• (General New Zealand) IPA^(key): /st??n/
• Rhymes: -??n

Noun

stone (countable and uncountable, plural stones or stone) (see usage notes)

1. (uncountable) A hard earthen substance that can form large rocks.
2. A small piece of stone, a pebble.
3. A gemstone, a jewel, especially a diamond.
4. (Britain, plural: stone) A unit of mass equal to 14 pounds (?6.3503 kilograms), formerly used for various commodities (wool, cheese, &c) but now principally used for personal weight
   • 1992 October 3, Edwina Currie, Diary:

     Weighed myself at the gym and have hit 10st 8lb, a sure sign of things getting out of control—so I can’t even console myself with a chocolate biscuit.

5. (botany) The central part of some fruits, particularly drupes; consisting of the seed and a hard endocarp layer.

6. (medicine) A hard, stone-like deposit.

7. (board games) A playing piece made of any hard material, used in various board games such as backgammon, and go.
8. A dull light grey or beige, like that of some stones.

9. (curling) A 42-pound, precisely shaped piece of granite with a handle attached, which is bowled down the ice.
10. A monument to the dead; a gravestone or tombstone.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Gray to this entry?)

11. (obsolete) A mirror, or its glass.
12. (obsolete) A testicle of an animal.
13. (dated, printing) A stand or table with a smooth, flat top of stone, commonly marble, on which to arrange the pages of a book, newspaper, etc. before printing; also called imposing stone.

Usage notes

All countable senses use the plural stones except the British unit of mass, which uses the invariant plural stone.

Synonyms

• (substance): rock
• (small piece of stone): pebble
• (unit of mass): petra
• (of fruit): pip, pit
• (hard stone-like deposit): calculus
• (curling piece): rock

Descendants

• Sranan Tongo: ston
• ? Esperanto: ?tono

Translations

Verb

stone (third-person singular simple present stones, present participle stoning, simple past and past participle stoned)

1. (transitive) To pelt with stones, especially to kill by pelting with stones.

   She got stoned to death after they found her.

2. (transitive) To wall with stones.
3. (transitive) To remove a stone from (fruit etc.).
4. (intransitive) To form a stone during growth, with reference to fruit etc.
5. (transitive, slang) To intoxicate, especially with narcotics. (Usually in passive)
6. (intransitive, Singapore, slang) To do nothing, to stare blankly into space and not pay attention when relaxing or when bored.
7. (transitive) To lap with an abrasive stone to remove surface irregularities.

Synonyms

• (pelt with stones): lapidate
• (do nothing, just relaxing): chill, chillax, chill out, hang out, rilek
• (do nothing, stare into space): daydream, veg out

Translations

Adjective

stone (not comparable)

1. Constructed of stone.

   stone walls

   Synonym: (archaic) stonen

2. Having the appearance of stone.

   stone pot

3. Of a dull light grey or beige, like that of some stones.
4. (African-American Vernacular) Used as an intensifier.

   She is one stone fox.
5. (LGBT) Willing to give sexual pleasure but not to receive it.

   stone butch; stone femme

   Antonym: pillow princess

Translations

Adverb

stone (not comparable)

1. As a stone (used with following adjective).

   My father is stone deaf. This soup is stone cold.

2. (slang) Absolutely, completely (used with following adjectives).

   I went stone crazy after she left.

   I said the medication made my vision temporarily blurry, it did not make me stone blind.

Translations

Derived terms

See also

• Appendix:Colors

Anagrams

• 'onest, ETNOs, Eston, SONET, notes, onest, onset, set on, seton, steno, steno-, tones

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ston/

Adjective

stone (plural stones)

1. stoned (high on drugs)

Middle English

Alternative forms

• ston, stan, stoon, stoone, stane, stoan

Etymology

From Old English st?n, from Proto-West Germanic *stain, from Proto-Germanic *stainaz.

Pronunciation

• (Early ME, Northern ME) IPA^(key): /st??n/
• IPA^(key): /st??n/
• Rhymes: -??n

Noun

stone (plural stones or stone or (Early ME, rare) stonen)

1. A stone, boulder, or pebble:
   1. A millstone or whetstone.
   2. A pebble used in a slingshot.
2. A solid mass resembling stone, especially:
   1. A piece of hail, a hailstone
   2. A kidney stone or gallstone
   3. A pit (the hard seed of a fruit)
   4. A jewel or precious crystal
   5. (colloquial) A testicle.
3. Stone as a material (especially in construction)
4. A stone structure or monument, especially a tomb or tombstone.
5. A stone (unit of mass)

Related terms

Descendants

• English: stone (see there for further descendants)
• Scots: stane
• Yola: sthoan

References

• “st?n, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-04-05.