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 was so clean he looked as if he had been scrubbed with soap and then rubbed with holystone.
From In Pastures New by Ade, George
At five o'clock we have to get up and go inside again so they can holystone the deck.
From Parrot & Co. by MacGrath, Harold
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
He had the floor of the portion we dwelt in holystoned every week; and numberless little racks and shelves were fitted up all over the house.
From Stories by English Authors: Africa (Selected by Scribners) by Scully, W. C. (William Charles)
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 Davis, Richard Harding
Decks are no longer holystoned, but the cable still supplies the captain with opportunity to attest a pious respect for the divine ordinance.
From The Devil's Dictionary by Bierce, Ambrose
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
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
On the third morning Katy woke and dressed so early, that she gained the deck before the sailors had finished their scrubbing and holystoning.
From What Katy Did Next by Coolidge, Susan
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.
