merestone arch. and dial.
(ˈmɪəstəʊn)
[f. mere n.2 + stone.]
A stone set up as a landmark.
| 956 in Birch Cartul. Sax. III. 154 Ðis synton ða landᵹemæro..On mærstan, of mærstane on ðone ealdan ᵹaran. ? 1360 Durham Halm. Rolls (Surtees) 26 Amovit unum merstane. 1483 Cath. Angl. 232/2 A Meyre stane, bifinium. 1577 tr. Bullinger's Decades (1592) 395 Thou shalt not remoue thy neighbours merestone. 1679 Coll. Conn. Hist. Soc. (1897) VI. 190 The meere stones of the lot. 1782 MS. Indenture Estate at Babworth, co. Nottingham., Closes..lying East of the meerstones or boundaries set up by Robert Rogers. 1839 Stonehouse Axholme 384 A Mere Stone called God's Cross. 1879 Jefferies Amateur Poacher iii, By the pond stood a low three-sided merestone or landmark. 1970 H. Braun Parish Churches xx. 235 Let it [sc. the church] rise from the land untroubled by fencing. Its yard can be kept from the plough by mere-stones. 1972 Parl. Debates Commons: Rep. Standing Comm. D: Local Govt. Bill, 18th Sitting 27 Jan. 1044 A ‘merestone’ is a boundary stone. |
| fig. 1617 Bacon Sp. to Hutton Resusc. (1657) i. 94 That you contain the Jurisdiction of the Court within the ancient Meere-stones, without Removing the Mark. 1877 Trench Lect. Med. Ch. Hist. 15 The merestone to mark where one era terminated and another began. |