Whinstone
[hwinstәun]
Definition
(noun.) any of various hard colored rocks (especially rocks consisting of chert or basalt).
Inputed by Darlene--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) A provincial name given in England to basaltic rocks, and applied by miners to other kind of dark-colored unstratified rocks which resist the point of the pick. -- for example, to masses of chert. Whin-dikes, and whin-sills, are names sometimes given to veins or beds of basalt.
Inputed by Hilary
Definition
n. a popular name in Scotland for any hard and compact kind of stone as distinguished from sandstone or freestone and rocks of slaty structure.—Also Whin.
Editor: Wendell
Examples
- The result was an intermediate substance, neither glass nor whinstone--a sort of slag. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
- He later enclosed some fragments of whinstone in a black-lead crucible and subjected it to intense heat in the reverberating furnace of an iron foundry. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
- Hall next experimented with lava f rom Vesuvius, Etna, Iceland, and elsewhere, and found that it behaved like whinstone. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
- The result in this case was a perfect whinstone. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
- Hutton believed that basalt, and the whinstones generally, are of igneous origin. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
Edited by Dinah