metate
noun
a flat stone that has a shallow depression in the upper surface for holding maize or other grains to be ground with a mano.
metates
-
pluralof metate.plural
The grammatical form denoting more than one person, place, thing, or idea.
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.
The metates also display many puzzling pseudo-glyphs on them that have yet to be studied and deciphered.
From National Geographic
Some archaeologists believe the metates may have been used not just as thrones, but also as seats for carrying the bundled and decorated bodies of the dead to their final resting place.
From National Geographic
Accompanying these metates are long, slim, flat stones, which are rubbed up and down the slabs, thus crushing the grain.
On the floor of this room a structure resembling the piki or paper bread oven of the Tusayan Indians, was found constructed partly of fragments of old and broken metates.
From Aboriginal Remains in Verde Valley, Arizona Thirteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1891-92, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1896, pages 179-262 by Cosmos Mindeleff
The metates of Chiriqui present a great diversity of form and possibly represent distinct peoples or different grades of culture.
From Ancient art of the province of Chiriqui, Colombia Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1884-1885, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1888, pages 3-188 by William Henry Holmes
