holystone
Americannoun
verb (used with object)
noun
verb
Etymology
Origin of holystone
1815–25; holy + stone; perhaps originally jocular or profane
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Nevertheless, there were always corners where the holystone had to be applied by hand.
From Time Magazine Archive
In the U. S. Navy the holystone has been used since the Government first built ships.
From Time Magazine Archive
But last week the holystone passed out of U. S. Naval tradition.
From Time Magazine Archive
No one seemed to be about, so he seized a pail half filled with sujee, a block of holystone, and a stiff broom.
From Peter the Brazen A Mystery Story of Modern China by Gayle Porter Hoskins
The holystone is a large, soft stone, smooth on the bottom, with long ropes attached to each end, by which the crew keep it sliding fore and aft, over the wet, sanded decks.
From Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana
A third WPA crew, he was told, had got at a bronze Washington in front of Independence Hall, holystoned away every trace of its treasured greenish mold.
From Time Magazine Archive
Dingy decks were holystoned white, and the rigging was taut, tarred, and dressed in its chafing gear.
From "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch" by Jean Lee Latham
During this first week she is painted, and holystoned, her carpets are beaten, her cabins scrubbed and aired, and the passengers mess with the officers.
From The Congo and Coasts of Africa by Richard Harding Davis
They said her decks were as white as snow,— holystoned every morning, like a man-of-war's; everything on board ``ship-shape and Bristol fashion''; a fine crew, three mates, a sailmaker and carpenter, and all complete.
From Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana
Below the holystoned decks the watch snored, unaware that the tide hung at its flood and that a wan yellow sun was rising over the Coast Range like a paper lantern in a summer's garden.
From The Ice Pilot by Henry Leverage
Each of the crew of six boys who manned the Indra had paid $1,500 for the privilege of rigging her sails, holystoning her decks, polishing her brass every morning until June.
From Time Magazine Archive
Formerly applied by seamen on hands and knees, holystoning is now performed with long-handled implements, mopwise.
From Time Magazine Archive
So I went inside to where he was holystoning the taproom table.
From "My Brother Sam is Dead" by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
The everlasting holystoning of wooden decks and the dim lanterns hung at intervals from low-hanging beams—they are gone.
From The U-boat hunters by James B. (James Brendan) Connolly
But we had "holystoning" decks enough to make up for it.
From The Story of a Strange Career Being the Autobiography of a Convict; an Authentic Document by Anonymous
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
