ˈcherry-stone
See cherry n. and stone.
1. The stone or hard endocarp of the cherry.
| c 1350 Medical MS. in Archæol. XXX. 354 Late hym take y⊇ cheriston mete And with holy watir it drynke & ete. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 72 Cheristone, petrilla. 1584 R. Scot Disc. Witchcr. xiii. xxviii. 335 Take a nut, or a cheristone & burne a hole through the side of the top of the shell. 1677 Hale Prim. Orig. Man. iii. vi. 276 Cæsar's Image drawn upon a Cherry-stone is a piece of great curiosity. 1784 Johnson in Boswell 13 June, Milton..could cut a Colossus from a rock; but..not carve heads upon cherry-stones. |
b. As the type of a thing of trifling value.
| [1590 Shakes. Com. Err. iv. iii. 74 Some diuels aske but the parings of ones naile..a pin, a nut, a cherrie-stone.] 1607 Dekker Wh. Babylon Wks. 1873 II. 276 Not a cherry stone of theirs was sunke. 1759 Sterne Tr. Shandy I. xix, He would not give a cherry-stone to choose amongst them. |
2. A game played with these stones.
| 1519 W. Horman Vulg. xxxii. 282 Playenge at cheriston is good for children. c 1520 Skelton Sp. Parrot 331 To bryng all the see into a cheryston pit..To rule ix realmes by one mannes wytte. [1537 Thersytes in 4 Old Plays (1848) 82 The counters wherwith cherubyn did cheristones count.] |