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
The after half of her deck was parted off with a light rope rail, was kept as white as holystone could make it, and had a brass railed bulwark.
From The Marquis of Lossie by MacDonald, George
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 floors were holystoned nearly every day, and the whole house was repainted about twice a year, a little at a time, when the weather was suitable for this marine recreation.
From The Magic Egg and Other Stories by Stockton, Frank Richard
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 Hubbard, Elbert
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
The boards began to whiten with the holystoning.
From A Boy's Voyage Round the World by Smiles, Samuel
"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 Bullen, Frank T.
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.
