i Register
In some senses, whetstone is marked as figuratively. Watch for register when choosing this word.
whetstone
/ˈʍɛtˌstoʊn/
name 5noun 4verb 1
Collocations
5ADJ.
beside, livid, numerical
VERB + WHETSTONE
bits, kept
WHETSTONE + NOUN
etcetera, flint, marble, wits
PREP.
across, from, into, until
ADV.
mostly
Definitions
noun
1
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.
[…]for alwaies the dulneſſe of the foole, is the whetstone of the wits.
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.
2
A stimulant.
3
Alternative letter-case form of Whetstone (“benchmark”).
verb
1
To sharpen with a whetstone.
Near-synonym: hone (verb)
name
1
A suburb and ward in the borough of Barnet, Greater London, England (OS grid ref TQ2693).
2
A large village and civil parish in Blaby district, Leicestershire, England (OS grid ref SP5597).
3
A census-designated place in Cochise County, Arizona, United States.
4
An unincorporated community in Clay County, West Virginia, United States.
5
A surname.
Thesaurus
Synonyms
Antonyms
Idioms & Phrases
Example Bank
601
[…]for alwaies the dulneſſe of the foole, is the whetstone of the wits.
Wiktionary02
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.
Wiktionary03
Near-synonym: hone (verb)
Wiktionary04
Developed in the early 1970s by Harold Curnow and Brian Wichmann, Whetstones was originally released in Algol and Fortran versions but was later translated into several other languages.
Wiktionary05
Whetstone reflects mostly numerical computing, using a substantial amount of floating-point arithmetic.
Wiktionary06
The Prodigy 4 does 500,000 Whetstones.
WiktionaryUsage Notes
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