Ivory
['aɪv(ə)rɪ] or ['aɪvəri]
Definition
(noun.) a hard smooth ivory colored dentine that makes up most of the tusks of elephants and walruses.
Checker: Roberta--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) 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.
(n.) The tusks themselves of the elephant, etc.
(n.) Any carving executed in ivory.
(n.) Teeth; as, to show one's ivories.
Typist: Molly
Definition
n. the hard white substance composing the tusks of the elephant and of the sea-horse.—adj. made of or resembling ivory.—adj. I′voried made like ivory: furnished with teeth.—ns. I′vory-black a black powder originally made from burnt ivory but now from bone; I′vory-nut the nut of a species of palm containing a substance like ivory; I′vory-palm the tree which bears the ivory-nut; I′vory-por′celain a fine ware with an ivory-white glaze.—Show one's ivories to show the teeth.
Checker: Trent
Unserious Contents or Definition
To dream of ivory, is favorable to the fortune of the dreamer. To see huge pieces of ivory being carried, denotes financial success and pleasures unalloyed.
Edited by Aaron
Examples
- The span is made of either hard wood or ivory. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- Here there were no white men, no soldiers, nor any rubber or ivory to be gathered for cruel and thankless taskmasters. Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
- Paul, for light enough still lingered to show the velvet blackness of his close-shorn head, and the sallow ivory of his brow) looked in. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- His eyes were large and blue, with brown lashes; his high forehead, colourless as ivory, was partially streaked over by careless locks of fair hair. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- Occasionally he recognizes the wilful character of politics: then he shakes his head, climbs into an ivory tower and deplores the moonshine, the religious manias and the passions of the mob. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- These people at a later stage also scratched and engraved designs on ivory and bone. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- Except for the cue ball, no ivory balls are used today on the pocket table. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- The seats had also their stained coverings, and one, which was higher than the rest, was accommodated with a footstool of ivory, curiously carved. Walter Scott. Ivanhoe.
- He ordered and sent a box of scarfs and a grand ivory set of chess-men from China. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- The whiteness of the teeth is not that of ivory, but of the snowiest and most gleaming of china. Edgar Rice Burroughs. A Princess of Mars.
- Young men like John don't take to ivory hands a pinting, for nothing. Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit.
- In the meantime, the valet left the room, and returned shortly with a little ivory book. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- She might be three feet high, but she had no shape; her skinny hands rested upon each other, and pressed the gold knob of a wand-like ivory staff. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- In the ivory storage vaults of one large company, there is held from $150,000 to $300,000 worth of ivory, ranging from the tusk up to the finished product. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- Ivory is of cellular, not fibrous, construction. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
Editor: Myra