Emily Dickinson Lexicon

STONE, n. [Sax. stan; Goth. staina; G. stein; D. and Dan. steen; Sw. sten; Dalmatian, sztina; Croatian, stine. This word may be a derivative from the root of stand, or it may belong to some root in Class Dn. The primary sense is to set, to fix; Gr. στενος.]

1. A hard concretion of some species of earth, as lime, silex, clay and the like; a hard compact body, of any form and size. In popular language, very large masses of concretions are called rocks; and very small concretions are universally called gravel or sand, or grains of sand. Stones are of various degrees of hardness and weight; they are brittle and fusible, but not malleable, ductile, or soluble in water. Stones are of great and extensive use in the constriction of buildings of all kinds, for walls, fences, piers, abutments, arches, monuments, sculpture, and the like. When we speak if the substance generally, we use stone in the singular; as, a house or wall of stone. But when we speak of particular separate masses, we say, a stone or the stones.
2. A gem; a precious stone. Inestimable stones, unvalu'd jewels. – Shak.
3. Any thing made of stone; a mirror. – Shak.
4. A calculous concretion in the kidneys or bladder; the disease arising from a calculus.
5. A testicle.
6. The nut of a drupe or stone fruit; or the hard covering inclosing the kernel, and itself inclosed by the pulpy pericarp. – Martyn.
7. In Great Britain, the weight of fourteen pounds. [8, 12, 14, or 16.] [Not used in the United States, except in reference to the riders of horses in races.]
8. A monument erected to preserve the memory of the dead. Should some relentless eye / Glance on the stone where our cold relics lie. – Pope.
9. It is used to express torpidness and insensibility; as, a hear of stone. I have not yet forgot myself to stone. – Pope.
10. Stone is prefixed to some words to qualify their signification. Thus stone-dead, is perfectly dead, as lifeless as a stone; stone-still, still as a stone, perfectly still; stone-blind, blind as a stone, perfectly blind. To leave no stone unturned, a proverbial expression which signifies to do every thing that can be done; to use all practicable means to effect an object. Meteoric stones, stones which fall from the atmosphere, as after the displosion of a meteor. Philosopher's stone, a pretended substance that was formerly supposed to have the property of turning any other substance into gold.