ˈcorner-stone
1. One of the stones forming the quoin or salient angle of a wall, a quoin-stone.
| 1382 Wyclif Job xxxviii. 6 Who dide doun the corner ston of it? 1557 North tr. Gueuara's Diall Pr. 55 a/1 The corner stone that lyeth on the toppe. 1597 Hooker Eccl. Pol. iv. lxxi. §2 That first-laid corner-stone in Zerrubabels buildings. 1607 Shakes. Cor. v. iv. 2 See you yond Coin a' th' Capitol, yond corner stone? 1724 Watts Logic iv. ii. Rule 1 The largest and fairest building sinks..to the ground, if the foundations and corner-stones of it are feeble and insufficient. 1862 Rickman Styles Archit. 63 The quoins or corner stones are arranged in a peculiar manner. 1870 F. Wilson Ch. Lindisf. 94 The rest of the work, beyond these strong reliable corner-stones, is almost as rough as rubble. |
b. fig. (esp. in reference to its function in consolidating the building.)
| a 1300 Cursor M. 19155 (Cott.) Jesu..þat es mad als a quarner stan For to mak tuin folk an. 1382 Wyclif Eph. ii. 20 Aboue bildid on the foundement of apostlis and of prophetis, bi that hiȝeste corner stoon, Crist Jhesu. 1768–74 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1852) I. 513 A trust in God is the grand corner stone of all religion. 1803 Syd. Smith Wks. (1859) I. 32/2 The high price of labour is the very corner-stone on which the prosperity of a new colony depends. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) IV. 30 Why should we make an ambiguous word the corner-stone of moral philosophy? |
† 2. The coving of a fire-place. Obs.
| 1703 T. N. City & C. Purchaser 118 Corner-stones..are 2 Stones..of which there stands one in each Jamb of a Chimney. Their Faces are hollow in the breadth, being a certain Sweep of a Circle..their heighth reaches from the Hearth to the Mantle-tree. |