Adjacent Words

Adamant definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

AD'AMANT, n. [ Gr.; L. adamas; a word of Celtic origin.]
A very hard or impenetrable stone; a name given to the diamond and other substances of extreme hardness. The name has often been given to the load stone; but in modern mineralogy, it has no technical signification.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: impervious to pleas, persuasion, requests, reason; "he is adamant in his refusal to change his mind"; "Cynthia was inexorable; she would have none of him"- W.Churchill; "an intransigent conservative opposed to every liberal tendency" [syn: adamant, adamantine, inexorable, intransigent] n
1: very hard native crystalline carbon valued as a gem [syn: diamond, adamant]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin adamant-, adamas hardest metal, diamond, from Greek Date: 14th century 1. a stone (as a diamond) formerly believed to be of impenetrable hardness 2. an unbreakable or extremely hard substance II. adjective Date: 1897 unshakable or insistent especially in maintaining a position or opinion ; unyielding Synonyms: see inflexible • adamantly adverb

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. & n. --adj. stubbornly resolute; resistant to persuasion. --n. archaic diamond or other hard substance. Derivatives: adamance n. adamantine adj. adamantly adv. Etymology: OF adamaunt f. L adamas adamant- untameable f. Gk (as A-(1), damao to tame)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Adamant Ad"a*mant ([a^]d"[.a]*m[a^]nt), n. [OE. adamaunt, adamant, diamond, magnet, OF. adamant, L. adamas, adamantis, the hardest metal, fr. Gr. 'ada`mas, -antos; 'a priv. + dama^,n to tame, subdue. In OE., from confusion with L. adamare to love, be attached to, the word meant also magnet, as in OF. and LL. See Diamond, Tame.] 1. A stone imagined by some to be of impenetrable hardness; a name given to the diamond and other substances of extreme hardness; but in modern mineralogy it has no technical signification. It is now a rhetorical or poetical name for the embodiment of impenetrable hardness. Opposed the rocky orb Of tenfold adamant, his ample shield. --Milton. 2. Lodestone; magnet. [Obs.] ``A great adamant of acquaintance.'' --Bacon. As true to thee as steel to adamant. --Greene.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

If someone is adamant about something, they are determined not to change their mind about it. The prime minister is adamant that he will not resign... Sue was adamant about that job in Australia. ADJ: usu v-link ADJ, oft ADJ that, ADJ about n/-ing • adamantly She was adamantly opposed to her husband travelling to Brussels. ADV: usu ADV with v, also ADV adj

Easton's Bible Dictionary

(Heb. shamir), Ezek. 3:9. The Greek word adamas means diamond. This stone is not referred to, but corundum or some kind of hard steel. It is an emblem of firmness in resisting adversaries of the truth (Zech. 7:12), and of hard-heartedness against the truth (Jer. 17:1).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

ad'-a-mant (shamir (Eze 3:9; Zec 7:12)): In the passages cited and in Jer 17:1, where it is rendered "diamond" the word shamir evidently refers to a hard stone. The word adamant ("unconquerable") is used in the early Greek writers for a hard metal, perhaps steel, later for a metal-like gold and later for the diamond. The Hebrew shamir, the Greek adamas (from which word "diamond" as well as "adamant" is derived) and the English adamant occur regularly in figurative expressions. All three are equally indefinite. Adamant may therefore be considered a good translation for shamir, though the Septuagint does not use adamas in the passages cited. There is a possible etymological identification of shamir with the Greek smyris (smeris or smiris), emery, a granular form of corundum well known to the ancients and used by them for polishing and engraving precious stones. Corundum in all its forms, including the sapphire and ruby, is in the scale of hardness next to the diamond. In English Versions of the Bible Isa 5:6; 7:23-25; 9:18; 10:17; 27:4; 32:13, shamir is translated "brier". See also STONES, PRECIOUS.

Alfred Ely Day

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. Diamond, crystallized carbon, infrangible mineral, indestructible stone, eternal rock.

Foolish Dictionary

From "Adam's Aunt," reputed to be a hard character. Hence, anything tough, or hard.

Moby Thesaurus

adamantine, at a standstill, cast-iron, dour, firm, flintlike, flinty, frozen, granitelike, granitic, grim, hard, hard-core, immobile, immotile, immotive, immovable, immutable, implacable, impliable, inductile, inelastic, inexorable, inextensible, inextensile, inextensional, inflexible, intractable, intractile, intransigent, iron, irreconcilable, irremovable, irresilient, lithic, marblelike, nonelastic, nonstretchable, obdurate, pat, petrified, petrogenic, relentless, rigid, rigorous, rock, rock-ribbed, slaty, standpat, stationary, steely, stern, stiff, stone, stubborn, unaffected, unalterable, unbending, unchangeable, uncompromising, unextendible, unextensible, unflexible, ungiving, unlimber, unmalleable, unmovable, unmoved, unmoving, unpliable, unpliant, unrelenting, unswayable, untractable, unyielding