Adjacent Words

Alabaster definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

AL'ABASTER, n. [L. from Gr.]
A sub-variety of carbonate of lime, found in large masses, formed by the deposition of calcarious particles in caverns of limestone rocks. These concretions have a foliated, fibrous or granular structure, and are of a pure white color, or more generally they present shades of yellow, red or brown, in undulating or concentric stripes, or in spots.
Among the ancients, alabaster was also the name of a vessel in which odoriferous liquors were kept; so called from the stone of which it was made. Also, the name of a measure, containing ten ounces of wine or nine of oil.
AL'ABASTER, a. Made of alabaster, or resembling it.
Alabastrum dendroide, a kind of laminated alabaster, variegated with figures of shrubs and trees, found in the province of Hohenstein.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: of or resembling alabaster; "alabaster statue" [syn: alabaster, alabastrine] n
1: a compact fine-textured, usually white gypsum used for carving
2: a hard compact kind of calcite [syn: alabaster, oriental alabaster, onyx marble, Mexican onyx]
3: a very light white

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Middle English alabastre, from Anglo-French albastre, from Latin alabaster vase of alabaster, from Greek alabastros Date: 14th century 1. a compact fine-textured usually white and translucent gypsum often carved into vases and ornaments 2. a hard compact calcite or aragonite that is translucent and sometimes banded • alabaster or alabastrine adjective

Merriam Webster's

geographical name city central Alabama S of Birmingham population 22,619

Britannica Concise

Fine-grained gypsum that has been used for centuries for statuary, carvings, and other ornaments. It normally is snow-white and translucent but can be artificially dyed; it may be made opaque and similar in appearance to marble by heat treatment. Florence, Livorno, Milan, and Berlin are important centers of the alabaster trade. The alabaster of the ancients was a brown or yellow onyx marble.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & adj. --n. a translucent usu. white form of gypsum, often carved into ornaments. --adj. 1 of alabaster. 2 like alabaster in whiteness or smoothness. Derivatives: alabastrine adj. Etymology: ME f. OF alabastre f. L alabaster, -trum, f. Gk alabast(r)os

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Alabaster Al"a*bas"ter, n. [L. alabaster, Gr. ?, said to be derived fr. Alabastron, the name of a town in Egypt, near which it was common: cf. OF. alabastre, F. alb[^a]tre.] 1. (Min.) (a) A compact variety or sulphate of lime, or gypsum, of fine texture, and usually white and translucent, but sometimes yellow, red, or gray. It is carved into vases, mantel ornaments, etc. (b) A hard, compact variety of carbonate of lime, somewhat translucent, or of banded shades of color; stalagmite. The name is used in this sense by Pliny. It is sometimes distinguished as oriental alabaster. 2. A box or vessel for holding odoriferous ointments, etc.; -- so called from the stone of which it was originally made. --Fosbroke.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

Alabaster is a white stone that is used for making statues, vases, and ornaments. N-UNCOUNT: usu N n

Easton's Bible Dictionary

occurs only in the New Testament in connection with the box of "ointment of spikenard very precious," with the contents of which a woman anointed the head of Jesus as he sat at supper in the house of Simon the leper (Matt. 26:7; Mark 14:3; Luke 7:37). These boxes were made from a stone found near Alabastron in Egypt, and from this circumstance the Greeks gave them the name of the city where they were made. The name was then given to the stone of which they were made; and finally to all perfume vessels, of whatever material they were formed. The woman "broke" the vessel; i.e., she broke off, as was usually done, the long and narrow neck so as to reach the contents. This stone resembles marble, but is softer in its texture, and hence very easily wrought into boxes. Mark says (14:5) that this box of ointment was worth more than 300 pence, i.e., denarii, each of the value of sevenpence halfpenny of our money, and therefore worth about 10 pounds. But if we take the denarius as the day's wage of a labourer (Matt. 20:2), say two shillings of our money, then the whole would be worth about 30 pounds, so costly was Mary's offering.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

al'-a-bas-ter (alabastron (Mt 26:7; Mr 14:3; Lu 7:37)): In modern mineralogy alabaster is crystalline gypsum or sulphate of lime. The Greek word alabastron or alabastos meant a stone casket or vase, and alabastites was used for the stone of which the casket was made. This stone was usually crystalline stalagmitic rock or carbonate of lime, now often called oriental alabaster, to distinguish it from gypsum. The word occurs in the Bible only in the three passages of the Synoptic Gospels cited above. See BOX.

Moby Thesaurus

amphibole, antimony, apatite, aplite, arsenic, asbestos, asphalt, azurite, bauxite, billiard table, bitumen, boron, bowling alley, bowling green, brimstone, bromine, brucite, calcite, carbon, celestite, chalcedony, chalk, chlorite, chromite, clay, coal, coke, corundum, cryolite, diatomite, driven snow, emery, epidote, epsomite, feldspar, flat, fleece, flour, foam, garnet, glass, glauconite, graphite, gypsum, hatchettine, holosiderite, ice, iron pyrites, ivory, jet, kyanite, level, lignite, lily, lime, maggot, magnesite, mahogany, malachite, maltha, marble, marcasite, marl, meerschaum, mica, milk, mineral coal, mineral oil, mineral salt, mineral tallow, mineral tar, mineral wax, molybdenite, monazite, obsidian, olivine, ozokerite, paper, pearl, peat, perlite, phosphate rock, phosphorus, plane, pumice, pyrite, pyrites, pyroxene, quartz, realgar, red clay, rhodonite, rock crystal, rocks, salt, satin, selenite, selenium, sheet, siderite, silica, silicate, silicon, silk, silver, slide, smooth, snow, spar, spinel, spodumene, sulfur, swan, talc, talcum, tellurium, tennis court, velvet, wollastonite, wulfenite, zeolite