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:
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
Nevertheless, there were always corners where the holystone had to be applied by hand.
From Time Magazine Archive
Outside the door stood a bucket of water, a big holystone beside it, while the one-eyed seaman Birch was just rising to his feet from the deck.
From The Pirate Shark by Arting, Fred J.
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 Dana, Richard Henry
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
And it bore little or no resemblance to the book as we have it now—now that the salaried polisher has holystoned all of the genuine Eddyties out of it.
From The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Stories by Twain, Mark
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 Stribling, T. S.
The floor is composed of flag-stones, in this case always carefully washed and holystoned.
From The Toilers of the Field by Jefferies, Richard
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 boards began to whiten with the holystoning.
From A Boy's Voyage Round the World by Smiles, Samuel
The thermometer fell to 18 degrees during the night, and the water froze on the decks during the holystoning.
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.
