whetstone
(ˈhwɛtstəʊn)
Forms: see whet v. and stone n.; also 4 whestoun, 4–5 wheston, weston(e, 4–6 whestone, 5 whestoon, watstone, quetstone, 5–6 whatstane; β. 6 Sc. quhitstane, 7 whitston, 8 whitstone.
[OE. hwetstán (huete-, huetistán) = (M)Du. wetsteen, MLG. wettestên (LG. wettstein), OHG. wez(z)istein (MHG. wetz(e)stein, G. wetzstein): f. whet v. + stone n.]
1. A shaped stone used for giving a smooth edge to cutting tools when they have been ground.
| c 725 Corpus Gloss. (Hessels) C 746 Cox, huetestan. c 893 ælfred Oros. iv. xiii. §5 Hit biþ eac ᵹeornlic þæt mon heardlice gnide þone hnescestan mealmstan æfter þæm þæt he þence þone soelestan hwetstan on to ᵹeræceanne. c 1374 Chaucer Troylus i. 631 A wheston [v.r. weston] is no keruyng Instrument, And yet it maketh sharpe keruyng tolys. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvi. xxiii. (Tollem. MS.), Ben diuerse maner of whetstones, and some neden water and some neden oyle for-to whette. 1472 Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 247, j whatstane. 1573–80 Tusser Husb. (1878) 61 Get grindstone and whetstone, for toole that is dull. 1584 Cogan Haven Health cxcii. 150 And, as it is saide a good Cooke can make you good meate of a whet⁓stone. 1587 Holinshed Chron. III. 916/1, I am..taken suddenlie with a thing about my stomach, that lieth there along as cold as a whetstone. 1606 Dekker Newes from Hell Wks. (Grosart) II. 99 Some pittifull fellowes (that haue..wittes colde as Whetstones, and more blunt). 1692 South Serm., John vii. 17 (1697) I. 270 Diligence is to the Understanding, as the Whetstone to the Razor. 1794 Kirwan Elem. Min. (ed. 2) I. 239 Some argillites and sandstones; these last form the coarser whet-stones. 1857 Miller Elem. Chem., Org. xi. §2. (1862) 775 The..skins..are carefully smoothed with a whetstone upon a beam. 1896 J. Davidson Fleet St. Ecl. Ser. ii. 14 Still and anon The whetstone shrieked against the curving blade. |
| β 1513 Douglas æneis vii. xi. 62 Sum..on quhitstanis thair axis scharpis at hame. 1533 Bellenden Livy i. xv. (S.T.S.) I. 84 Þow suld cut þat quhitstane in þi hand with ane rasoure. |
b. Any hard fine-grained rock, as novaculite, of which whetstones are made; hone-stone.
| 1578 T. Proctor Gorg. Gallery H iij b, Like as what stone,..hardiest is with toole to bee graue, Doth sooner breake in peeces, then it bendeth. 1661 J. Childrey Brit. Baconica 111 This shire is well stored with Milstones, Crystal, Alabaster and Whetstone. 1788, 1806 [see hone n.1 3, 4]. 1894 Northumbld. Gloss., Whetstone, or Whetstone-sill, strata of argillaceous and siliceous hazle-stone in the carboniferous limestone formation. |
c. transf. (See
quots.)
| 1580 T. Newton Approved Med. 93 b, A Mole in a womans body, otherwise called a whetston, or a moone Calfe [i.e. a false conception]. 1683 Thoresby Diary (ed. Hunter) I. 155 This place [Grantham] is..chiefly noted of travellers, for a peculiar sort of thin cake, called Grantham Whetstones. 1886 Cheshire Gloss., Whetstun,..any hard swelling. 1887 S. Cheshire Gloss., Whetstone, a lump in the udder of a cow, consequent upon the ducts having been overcharged. |
2. Allusive and
fig. uses.
a. gen. with reference to the use of a whetstone.
| 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) VII. 341 He..whette þe rude soules to goode wiþ þe whestoun of vertues. 1547–64 Bauldwin Mor. Philos. (Palfr.) 111 Except the sinful heart of man..be often scoured with the whetstone of aduersity. 1589 Nashe Martin Marprel. Wks. (Grosart) I. 157 Shooting out their venemous shafts, with mischeeuous heads, sharpened vpon Martins most malicious whetstone. 1603 Dekker Wond. Year Wks. (Grosart) I. 147 The very name of Londoners being worse then ten whetstones to sharpen the sword of Iustice against them. 1654 Whitlock Zootomia 165 Rhetoricall Topicks are such Whetstones, that even the Sword of the Spirit (that two-edged Sword) hath often used. 1763 Colman Jealous Wife iv. 59 He serves for nothing but a mere Whetstone of your Ill-humour. 1818 Byron Ch. Har. iv. xxxviii, Boileau, whose rash envy could allow No strain which shamed his country's creaking lyre, That whetstone of the teeth—monotony in wire! 1821 Scott Kenilw. xv, The face of the Sovereign was a whet⁓stone to the soldier's sword. |
b. in allusion to the former custom of hanging a whetstone round the neck of a liar;
esp. in
phr. to lie for the whetstone, to be a great liar.
| [1364 Liber Albus (Rolls) iv. 601 Juggement de Pillorie par iii heures, ove un ague pier entour soun col, pur mensonges controeves.] 1418 Cal. Let.-Bks. Lond., Let.-Bk. I (1909) 197 He, as a fals lyere..shal stonde..upon þe pillorye..wiþ a Westone aboute his necke. c 1460 Towneley Myst. xxi. 80 A, good sir, lett hym oone; he lyes for the quetstone, I gyf hym the pryce. 1472 Cov. Leet Bk. 372 Nor that they frohensfurth enbrase eny jure, vppon the peyn to lese at þe first defalt, C s., and at þe ij de defalt to haue the wheston aboute their nekkes. 1570 Foxe A. & M. (ed. 2) 196/1 Peraduenture he that was the inuentor fyrst of thys tale of the stone, was disposed to lie for the whetstone: Wherfore in my mynde he is worthy to haue it. 1577 Fulke Confut. Purg. 437 You haue sayd enough, M. Allen, to winne the whetstone, if it were as bigge as any mountaine in the worlde. 1579 ― Confut. Sanders 596 Of all the lowde lyes that euer I heard, this may goe for the whetstone. 1592 Nashe Strange Newes Wks. (Grosart) II. 267 Ware stumbling of whetstones in the darke there, my maisters. 1593 G. Harvey Pierce's Super. Wks. (Grosart) II. 211 He might..for his labour challenge to be preferred to the Clarkship of the whetstone. Ibid. 215 Our worshipfull Clarkes of the whetstone, Doctour Clare [etc.]..diuers late Historiologers, and..this new Tale-founder himselfe. 1600 Nashe Summer's Last Will Wks. (Grosart) VI. 98 O intolerable lying villayne, that was never begotten without the consent of a whetstone! 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts 639 They wil presently giue both these Authors and me the Whet-stone for rare vntruths. 1658 [H. Edmundson] Fellow-trav. 285 A great Person..had in a frolick set on some wanton wits to lye for the Whetstone. 1709 S. Centlivre Busie Body iii. iv, If you be not as errant a Cuckold, as e're drove Bargain upon the Exchange,..I am the Son of a Whet⁓stone. 1792 J. Budworth Ramble to Lakes vi. 1881 Leic. Gloss. |
| β 1778 Exmoor Courtship (E.D.S.) 79 What a gurt Lee es thate!..thek Man shou'd a' had the Whitstone. |
c. Something that sharpens the wits, desires, etc., or incites to action.
| 1551 T. Wilson Logic Ep. A iij, I professe it to be but a spurre, or a whetstone, to sharpe the pens of some other. 1551 Recorde Pathw. Knowl. Ep. to King, By the readyng of wyttie artes (which be as the whette stones of witte). 1583 Greene Mamillia 8 b, The court Mamillia, is y⊇ whet⁓ston of lust, the baite of vanity, the call of Cupid. 1588 ― Pandosto B 1 b, Preferment to a meane man, is a whetstone to courage. 1618 J. Taylor (Water P.) Pennyles Pilgr. B 3, Wits whetstone, want. 1657 R. Ligon Barbadoes (1673) 37 For a whetstone, to pull on a cup of wine, we have dryed Neats tongues. 1691 Wood Ath. Oxon. I. 358 The Wits..made him their Whetstone. 1752 Hume Pol. Disc. ii. 31 Anger, which is said to be the whetstone of courage. 1821 Shelley Epipsych., Passages etc. 100 Let them read Shakespeare's sonnets, taking thence A whetstone for their dull intelligence. a 1857 R. A. Vaughan Ess. & Rem. (1858) I. 7 Their wit could content itself with no less royal a whet⁓stone than himself and his son Pius. |
| β 1617 R. Cocks Diary (Hakl. Soc.) I. 240, I am of opinion that Goresano, our late jurebasso, is a whitston to egg hym on against us. |
3. attrib. and
Comb., as
whetstone-mountain;
whetstone-shaped adj.;
† whetstone-leasing (
leasing n.):
cf. 2 b above.
| 1598 Bp. Hall Sat. iv. vi, *Whet-stone leasings of olde Maundeuile. |
| 1851 B. Thorpe Northern Mythol. I. 71 The club was dashed in pieces, of which one portion fell on the earth, whence come all the *whetstone mountains. |
| 1883 Encycl. Brit. XVI. 680/1 *Whetstone-shaped crystals. 1888 Rolleston & Jackson Anim. Life 114 The mucus..contains whetstone-shaped bodies. |