stonework
(ˈstəʊnwɜːk)
(Also with hyphen, or occas. as two words.)
[Cf. OS. stênwerk, MHG., mod.G. steinwerk.]
1. Work built of stone; masonry.
| c 1000 ælfric Saints' Lives xxvii. 29 He..worhte þa of seolfre ænne heahne stypel on stanweorces ᵹelicnysse. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) II. 81 Vawtes of stoonwerk wonderliche i-wrouȝt. 1412–20 Lydg. Troy Bk. ii. 698 With spoutis þoruȝ & pipes..From þe ston-werke to þe canel rauȝt. 1556 Chron. Grey Friars (Camden) 75 The goodly stoneworke that stode behynde the hye alter. 1609 Holland Amm. Marcell. xxiv. i. 241 The scluces or floudgates made of stone worke. 1776 G. Semple Building in Water 73 All that soft Slutch would be thrown out, and a firm Stone-work put in the Place of it. 1837 Penny Cycl. IX. 165/2 A course of stone work imbedded in cement. a 1894 Layard Autobiog. (1903) I. iii. 146 The Lion of St. Mark carved in the stone⁓work. |
b. Artistic work of any kind executed in stone.
| 1910 D. G. Hogarth in Encycl. Brit. I. 248/1 The magnificent gold work of the later period..should be compared with stone work in Crete, especially the steatite vases with reliefs found at Hagia Triada. |
2. The process of working in stone, as in building; the labour or task of a mason.
| 1793 Smeaton Edystone L. §93 Whether there was any kind of mortar or cement used in the stone-work. 1870 J. L. Aikman Centenary Anderston Ch., Glasgow, Hist. Sk. 60 The stone-work was let to Mr. Broom, builder. |
b. Coal Mining. The work of driving headings through stone or rock:
cf. stone-heading (
stone n. 20).
| 1883 Gresley Gloss. Coal-mining 242 Stone work, driving of drifts or galleries in measures. |
So
stone-worker, a worker in stone; one who shapes or carves stone, as in building or sculpture.
stone-working, the process of working in stone (also
attrib.).
stone-works, (
a) an establishment for preparing stone for building, decorative, or other purposes; (
b) an establishment for making artificial stone.
| 1898 Allbutt's Syst. Med. V. 253 The pulmonary fibrosis of metal-grinders, of *stone-workers..and some other trades, is popularly known as consumption. |
| 1875 Knight Dict. Mech., *Stone-working Tools. 1905 Miss A. S. Griffith tr. Capart's Prim. Art Egypt ii. 50 As a question of stone⁓working it is astonishing to find primitive man making rings in flint. |
| 1731 W. Halfpenny Perspective 34 Mr. Allen's *Stone-Works, near the City of Bath. 1878 Jewitt Ceramic Art I. 163 At the commencement Mr. Ransome had..his stone-works at Ipswich. |