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
But last week the holystone passed out of U. S. Naval tradition.
From Time Magazine Archive
In the U. S. Navy the holystone has been used since the Government first built ships.
From Time Magazine Archive
At five o'clock we have to get up and go inside again so they can holystone the deck.
From Parrot & Co. by Harold MacGrath
Hose, mops, and holystone, until the teak looked as if it had just left the Rangoon sawmills; then the brass, every knob and piping, every latch and hinge and port loop.
From The Pagan Madonna by W. H. D. (William Henry Dethlef) Koerner
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
Her deck was holystoned to man-o'-war cleanliness; every sheet, hawser, stay, tackle, pin, spike, was in place.
From The Cruise of the Dry Dock by T. S. Stribling
The prison-ships lying in the Thames, waiting for their living cargo to be carried away and dumped on distant lands, were cleaned out, refitted, holystoned, and sent out as merchant-ships.
From Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great - Volume 09 Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Reformers by Elbert Hubbard
The decks were as dirty as if they had not been holystoned or swept all that time; not a sail was properly set, not a rope flemished down.
From The Pirate of the Mediterranean A Tale of the Sea by F.C. Tilney
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
Very soon he came alongside the yacht: the sailors were holystoning the deck, but there was not a face looked over the side that little Jan knew.
From Jan Vedder's Wife by Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr
"Why"—I could not help asking my chum Bill—"why, in the name of goodness all this back-breaking holystoning only to plaster such a foul mess on the decks immediately afterward?"
From The Log of a Sea-Waif Being Recollections of the First Four Years of My Sea Life by Frank T. Bullen
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