whetstone

[ hwet-stohn, wet- ]
See synonyms for whetstone on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a stone for sharpening cutlery or tools by friction.

  2. anything that sharpens: a whetstone for dull wits.

Origin of whetstone

1
before 900; Middle English whetston,Old English hwetstān.See whet, stone

Words Nearby whetstone

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use whetstone in a sentence

  • He approved of Parpon, and never lost a chance of sharpening his humour on the dwarf's impish whetstone of a tongue.

  • Behind him, each of the natives had laid his stabbing-knife, skinning-knife, and whetstone.

    The Boy With the U. S. Fisheries | Francis Rolt-Wheeler
  • It's colder'n a blue whetstone, so put on all the clothes you've got.

    Wayside Courtships | Hamlin Garland
  • It is a profession which uses the conscience as a whetstone upon which to sharpen the intellect.

    The Incendiary | W. A. (William Augustine) Leahy
  • His firm and close-grained mind was a sort of whetstone on which my father sharpened his wits at this weekly setting.

    Spare Hours | John Brown

British Dictionary definitions for whetstone

whetstone

/ (ˈwɛtˌstəʊn) /


noun
  1. a stone used for sharpening edged tools, knives, etc

  2. something that sharpens

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012