Emily Dickinson Lexicon

EM'ER-Y, n. [Fr. emeril, emeri; Sp. esmeril; D. ameril; G. schmergel; Gr. and L. smiris.]

A massive variety of sapphire; its structure finely granular; its color varying from a deep gray to a bluish or blackish gray, sometimes brownish. This is almost indispensable in polishing metals and hard stones. The lapidaries cut ordinary gems on their wheels, by sprinkling them with the moistened powder of emery; but it will not cut the diamond. Hill. Cleaveland.