Dictionary

hearthstone en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈhɑɹθstoʊn/ (General-American)
• /ˈhɑːθstəʊn/ (Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

From hearth + stone.

Meanings

1. A flat stone used to form a hearth.
   • I took a seat at the end of the hearthstone opposite that towards which my landlord advanced […]. 1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], chapter I, in Wuthering Heights: […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […], →OCLC:
2. (broadly, figuratively) The fireside, home life.
   • The denominational relations of a household will shape the future political positions of the young men growing around the hearth-stone, just as they did those of their fathers 1876, Richard J. Hinton, English Radical Leaders, page 55:
   • I am going to my own hearth-stone, / Bosomed in yon green hills alone, 1846, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Good-Bye, line 15:
   • The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearth-stone, all over this broad land 1861, Abraham Lincoln, First inaugural address:
3. A soft kind of stone used to whiten doorsteps, scour floors, etc.
   • Lastly, there is the hearth-stone barrow, piled up with hearth-stone, Bath-brick and lumps of whiting 1861, Henry Mayhew, London labour and the London Poor, volume 1, page 29:

Forms

Translations (6)

nrn årn (the stones around a fire) · kij kailagila (the stones around a fire) · ga teallach (the stones around a fire) · gl lareira (the stones around a fire) · non arinn (the stones around a fire) · mi pārua (the stones around a fire)

hearthstone en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /ˈhɑɹθstoʊn/ (General-American)
• /ˈhɑːθstəʊn/ (Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

From hearth + stone.

Meanings

1. (transitive) To scour, as a floor, with hearthstone.
   • We've a woman come in twice a week, to scrub, and red-brick, and hearthstone, and black-lead, and the rest we manage ourselves. 1876, Hallberger's Illustrated Magazine, page 202:

Forms