Meaning of ALABASTER
| Pronunciation: | | 'alu`bastur
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 WordNet Dictionary |
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- [n] a very light white
- [n] a compact fine-textured usually white gypsum used for carving
- [n] a hard compact kind of calcite
- [adj] of or resembling alabaster; "alabaster statue"
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| | Synonyms: | | alabastrine, Mexican onyx, onyx marble, oriental alabaster |
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| | See Also: | | calcite, gypsum, white, whiteness | |
| Webster's 1913 Dictionary |
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| | Definition: | | \Al"a*bas"ter\, n. [L. alabaster, Gr. ?, said to be
derived fr. Alabastron, the name of a town in Egypt, near
which it was common: cf. OF. alabastre, F. alb[^a]tre.]
1. (Min.)
(a) A compact variety or sulphate of lime, or gypsum, of
fine texture, and usually white and translucent, but
sometimes yellow, red, or gray. It is carved into
vases, mantel ornaments, etc.
(b) A hard, compact variety of carbonate of lime, somewhat
translucent, or of banded shades of color; stalagmite.
The name is used in this sense by Pliny. It is
sometimes distinguished as oriental alabaster.
2. A box or vessel for holding odoriferous ointments, etc.;
-- so called from the stone of which it was originally
made. --Fosbroke.
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| Dream Dictionary |
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| | Definition: | | The white intact alabaster has a very good meaning in a dream.
It means romance, love and successful marriage.
Broken alabaster carries a negative image to it. It corresponds
to a broken heart, deep sorrow and sometimes grief. |
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| Easton Bible Dictionary |
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| | Definition: | | occurs only in the New Testament in connection with the box of "ointment of spikenard very precious," with the contents of which a woman anointed the head of Jesus as he sat at supper in the house of Simon the leper (Matt. 26:7; Mark 14:3; Luke 7:37). These boxes were made from a stone found near Alabastron in Egypt, and from this circumstance the Greeks gave them the name of the city where they were made. The name was then given to the stone of which they were made; and finally to all perfume vessels, of whatever material they were formed. The woman "broke" the vessel; i.e., she broke off, as was usually done, the long and narrow neck so as to reach the contents. This stone resembles marble, but is softer in its texture, and hence very easily wrought into boxes. Mark says (14:5) that this box of ointment was worth more than 300 pence, i.e., denarii, each of the value of sevenpence halfpenny of our money, and therefore worth about 10 pounds. But if we take the denarius as the day's wage of a labourer (Matt. 20:2), say two shillings of our money, then the whole would be worth about 30 pounds, so costly was Mary's offering. |
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| Thesaurus Terms |
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| | Related Terms: | | amphibole, antimony, apatite, aplite, arsenic, asbestos, asphalt, azurite, bauxite, billiard table, bitumen, boron, bowling alley, bowling green, brimstone, bromine, brucite, calcite, carbon, celestite, chalcedony, chalk, chlorite, chromite, clay, coal, coke, corundum, cryolite, diatomite, driven snow, emery, epidote, epsomite, feldspar, flat, fleece, flour, foam, garnet, glass, glauconite, graphite, gypsum, hatchettine, holosiderite, ice, iron pyrites, ivory, jet, kyanite, level, lignite, lily, lime, maggot, magnesite, mahogany, malachite, maltha, marble, marcasite, marl, meerschaum, mica, milk, mineral coal, mineral oil, mineral salt, mineral tallow, mineral tar, mineral wax, molybdenite, monazite, obsidian, olivine, ozokerite, paper, pearl, peat, perlite, phosphate rock, phosphorus, plane, pumice, pyrite, pyrites, pyroxene, quartz, realgar, red clay, rhodonite, rock crystal, rocks, salt, satin, selenite, selenium, sheet, siderite, silica, silicate, silicon, silk, silver, slide, smooth, snow, spar, spinel, spodumene, sulfur, swan, talc, talcum, tellurium, tennis court, velvet, wollastonite, wulfenite, zeolite |
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