whetstone
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A whetstone being used to sharpen a knife.
See also: Whetstone
English
Etymology
From Middle English whestone, whetston, whetesston, from Old English hwetstān, from Proto-West Germanic *hwattjastain (“whetstone”). Equivalent to whet (“to sharpen”) + stone.
Pronunciation
- (US) IPA(key): /ˈwɛtˌstoʊn/,
- (US) IPA(key): /ˈʍɛtˌstoʊn/, (without wine-whine merger)
- (UK) IPA(key): /wɛtstəʊn/
Noun
whetstone (plural whetstones)
- A sharpening stone; a hard stone or piece of synthetically bonded hard minerals that has been formed with at least one flat surface, used to sharpen or hone an edged tool.
- c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 186, column 2, line 192:
- […] for alwaies the dulneſſe of the foole, is the whetstone of the wits.
- 1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, Jacob’s Room, Richmond, London: Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished London: The Hogarth Press, 1960, →OCLC:
- It was as if a stone were ground to dust; as if white sparks flew from a livid whetstone, which was his spine; as if the switchback railway, having swooped to the depths, fell, fell, fell.
- (figurative) A stimulant.
- (computing) Alternative letter-case form of Whetstone (“benchmark”)
Related terms
Translations
stone used to hone tools
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Verb
whetstone (third-person singular simple present whetstones, present participle whetstoning, simple past and past participle whetstoned)
- (transitive) To sharpen with a whetstone.