blue stone
1
7.8
- noun
- /blu stoʊn/
- Archaic
:
piedra azul
- He dipped into the basket beside him, took out a blue stone, and handed it to me.
- a small blue stone
Examples
-
Even with them, it's their spirit you treat, isn't it?" I closed my fingers around the blue stone, even though I was doubtful of its power to help me.
Fiction book (1990) -
He dipped into the basket beside him, took out a blue stone, and handed it to me.
Fiction book (1990) -
Does that ring have some blue stone in it?
-
"Next she picked up a long blue stone with gray markings.
Fiction book (1990) -
They are two blue stones.
Fiction book (1990) -
It was a nice diamond with a small blue stone set on either side, and when she opened the box, two weeks early, she jumped to her feet and kissed me.
Fiction book (1993) -
The glove came free, and Shan saw that the knight wore a ring on the first finger of his left hand: a twisted band of silver set with a blue stone.
Fiction book (1993) -
Once, in Scotland, a woman showed us a small, round blue stone in an old setting that turned out to be a rare blue diamond.
-
The glove came free, and Shan saw that the knight wore a ring on the first finger of his left hand: a twisted band of silver set with a blue stone.
Synonyms
1
4.6
A bright blue salt used to kill fungus on plants and for simple lab work
A blue crystal chemical that people use to kill plant fungus and in science experiments
A blue chemical that forms shiny crystals and is used in labs and factories
A bright blue mineral of copper that forms crystals in dry places
How Blue
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is compositionally interpretable as 'a stone that is blue', so a learner who knows 'blue' and 'stone' can guess a literal referent (a blue-colored mineral). However, the dictionary sense as a specific chemical (hydrated copper sulfate used as a fungicide) is a specialized, lexicalized technical meaning that is not predictable from the constituents alone and would likely require domain knowledge or prior exposure. Because part of the meaning is transparent but the established technical referent is not, this is best classified as semi-transparent.
Etymology
Blue stone comes from the bright blue, stone-like crystals of a chemical called copper sulfate. People used these crystals to 'kill fungus' on crops and to make 'ink', so the name links the color blue and the hard, rock-like stone to what it means today.