ˈflag-stone, ˈflagstone
[f. flag n.2 + stone.]
1. a. A flag or flat stone suitable for paving, etc.; hence often in pl. = pavement. b. Sandstone capable of being split up into flags.
| a. 1730 A. Gordon Maffei's Amphith. 359 A Pavement of large Flag-Stones. 1791 Boswell Johnson (1848) 807/2 Over his [Johnson's] grave was placed a large blue flag⁓stone with this inscription. 1840 F. Trollope Widow Married xii, Enjoying the sea-breeze on the broad flag⁓stones of the Marine Parade. |
| b. 1812–16 J. Smith Panorama Sc. & Art I. 220 If..a block of flag-stone were converted into a pillar. 1868 B. J. Lossing Hudson 184 Extensive quarries of flagstone. |
| attrib. 1842 H. Miller O.R. Sandst. x. (ed. 2) 229 The flagstone quarries of Caithness and Carmylie. |
2. flagstone artist = pavement-artist (see
pavement n. 4).
| 1861 Mayhew Lond. Labour Extra vol. (1862) 436/2 They arrested these flag-stone artists with others. 1891 Kipling Light that Failed iv. 54 They believed I was a self-taught flagstone artist. |
Hence
ˈflagstoned, paved with flag-stones.
| 1885 S. O. Jewett Marsh Isl. xi, From whence one could look across the flagstoned court. |