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:
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
Nevertheless, there were always corners where the holystone had to be applied by hand.
From Time Magazine Archive
He settled himself against the mast, gave a final polish to his hook with holystone, and using the hook every now and then to punctuate his narrative, began.
From In Clive's Command A Story of the Fight for India by Strang, Herbert
He pointed to a man who with one hand was rubbing a small holystone in a corner where a large one would not go.
From "Where Angels Fear to Tread" and Other Stories of the Sea by Robertson, Morgan
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
"The seas are pretty heavy and the decks are being holystoned for nothing, but I wouldn't like to have any of you washed overboard by mistake."
From Brewster's Millions by McCutcheon, George Barr
Ahead of him, the white superstructure, the white-duck uniform of the officer pacing the bridge, the whiteness of the holystoned deck, all stood boldly out against the deep cobalt of the gently swelling sea.
From The Key to Yesterday by Buck, Charles Neville
The deck of the Jasper B.," said Cleggett, looking at it, "to all appearances, has not been holystoned for some years.
From The Cruise of the Jasper B. by Marquis, Don
Formerly applied by seamen on hands and knees, holystoning is now performed with long-handled implements, mopwise.
From Time Magazine Archive
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
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
At about six every morning we are roused by the sailors holystoning the decks, under the superintendence of the officer of the watch.
From A Boy's Voyage Round the World by Smiles, Samuel
Skipper Simms kept the men busy painting and holystoning as a vent for their pent emotions.
From The Mucker by Burroughs, Edgar Rice
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.
