| / English Dictionary |
IVORY
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A shade of white the color of bleached bones
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("ivory" is a kind of...):
white; whiteness (the quality or state of the achromatic color of greatest lightness (bearing the least resemblance to black))
Sense 2
Meaning:
A hard smooth ivory colored dentine that makes up most of the tusks of elephants and walruses
Synonyms:
ivory; tusk
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("ivory" is a kind of...):
dentin; dentine (a calcareous material harder and denser than bone that comprises the bulk of a tooth)
Holonyms ("ivory" is a substance of...):
tusk (a long pointed tooth specialized for fighting or digging; especially in an elephant or walrus or hog)
Context examples:
We suspect that decreasing values of walrus ivory in Europe meant more and more tusks were harvested to keep the Greenland colonies economically viable.
(Over-hunting walruses contributed to the collapse of Norse Greenland, University of Cambridge)
It was not a photograph but an ivory miniature, and the artist had brought out the full effect of the lustrous black hair, the large dark eyes, and the exquisite mouth.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
His eyes were large and blue, with brown lashes; his high forehead, colourless as ivory, was partially streaked over by careless locks of fair hair.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
The site, known as Yana Rhinoceros Horn Site (RHS), was found in 2001 and features more than 2,500 artefacts of animal bones and ivory along with stone tools and evidence of human habitation.
(DNA from 31,000-year-old milk teeth leads to discovery of new group of ancient Siberians, University of Cambridge)
The ivory, the gold, and the pearls, all received their appointment, and the gentleman having named the last day on which his existence could be continued without the possession of the toothpick-case, drew on his gloves with leisurely care, and bestowing another glance on the Miss Dashwoods, but such a one as seemed rather to demand than express admiration, walked off with a happy air of real conceit and affected indifference.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
A nice workman, who was famous for little curiosities, undertook to make me two chairs, with backs and frames, of a substance not unlike ivory, and two tables, with a cabinet to put my things in.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
The whole place was turned upside down, drawers burst open, and presses ransacked, with the result that an odd volume of Pope’s ‘Homer,’ two plated candlesticks, an ivory letter-weight, a small oak barometer, and a ball of twine are all that have vanished.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
New DNA analysis reveals that, before their mysterious disappearance, the Norse colonies of Greenland had a “near monopoly” on Europe’s walrus ivory supply.
(Lost Norse of Greenland fuelled the medieval ivory trade, ancient walrus DNA suggests, University of Cambridge)
“You must hear me. You shall hear me. Do you remember a box—an ivory box? It came on Wednesday. You opened it—do you remember?”
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
“That pieces of a Norse boat were found so far north hints of the risks these hunters might have ended up taking in their quest for ivory.”
(Over-hunting walruses contributed to the collapse of Norse Greenland, University of Cambridge)
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