Adjacent Words

Garnet definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

G`ARNET, n. [L. granatus, from granum, or granatum, the pomegranate.]
1. A mineral usually occurring in crystals more or less regular. The crystals have numerous sides, from twelve to sixty or even eighty four. Its prevailing color is red of various shades, but often brown, and sometimes green, yellow or black. It sometimes resembles the hyacinth, the leucite,and the idocrase. Of this gem there are several varieties, as the precious or oriental, the pyrope, the topazolite,the succinite,the common garnet, the melanite, the pyreneite, the grossular, the allochroite,and the colophonite.
2. In ships, a sort of tackle fixed to the main stay, and used to hoist in and out the cargo.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: any of a group of hard glassy minerals (silicates of various metals) used as gemstones and as an abrasive

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Middle English gernet, from Anglo-French gernete, from gernet dark red, from pume gernete pomegranate Date: 14th century 1. a brittle and more or less transparent usually red silicate mineral that has a vitreous luster, occurs mainly in crystals but also in massive form and in grains, is found commonly in gneiss and mica schist, and is used as a semiprecious stone and as an abrasive 2. a variable color averaging a dark red • garnetiferous adjective

Britannica Concise

Any of a group of common silicate minerals with identical crystal structure but highly variable chemical composition. Garnets are most often found in metamorphic rocks but also occur in certain types of igneous rocks, and, usually in minor amounts, in some sedimentary rocks. They may be colorless, black, or many shades of red and green. Garnets are hard, and they fracture with sharp edges. They are used as abrasives for fine sanding and polishing of wood, leather, glass, metals, and plastics, as sandblasting agents, and in nonskid surface coatings. Garnet is the birthstone for January. Garnets have been mined in New York, Maine, and Idaho in the U.S., the world's leading producer; notable quantities have also been found in Australia, China, India, and elsewhere.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. a vitreous silicate mineral, esp. a transparent deep-red kind used as a gem. Etymology: ME f. OF grenat f. med.L granatum POMEGRANATE, from its resemblance to the pulp of the fruit

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Garnet Gar"net, n. [Etymol. unknown.] (Naut.) A tackle for hoisting cargo in our out. Clew garnet. See under Clew.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Garnet Gar"net, n. [OE. gernet, grenat, OF. grenet,grenat, F. grenat, LL. granatus, fr. L. granatum pomegranate, granatus having many grains or seeds, fr. granum grain, seed. So called from its resemblance in color and shape to the grains or seeds of the pomegranate. See Grain, and cf. Grenade, Pomegranate.] (Min.) A mineral having many varieties differing in color and in their constituents, but with the same crystallization (isometric), and conforming to the same general chemical formula. The commonest color is red, the luster is vitreous, and the hardness greater than that of quartz. The dodecahedron and trapezohedron are the common forms. Note: There are also white, green, yellow, brown, and black varieties. The garnet is a silicate, the bases being aluminia lime (grossularite, essonite, or cinnamon stone), or aluminia magnesia (pyrope), or aluminia iron (almandine), or aluminia manganese (spessartite), or iron lime (common garnet, melanite, allochroite), or chromium lime (ouvarovite, color emerald green). The transparent red varieties are used as gems. The garnet was, in part, the carbuncle of the ancients. Garnet is a very common mineral in gneiss and mica slate. Garnet berry (Bot.), the red currant; -- so called from its transparent red color. Garnet brown (Chem.), an artificial dyestuff, produced as an explosive brown crystalline substance with a green or golden luster. It consists of the potassium salt of a complex cyanogen derivative of picric acid.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(garnets) A garnet is a hard, shiny stone that is used in making jewellery. Garnets can be red, yellow, or green in colour. N-COUNT