stony

or ston·ey

[ stoh-nee ]

adjective

, ston·i·er, ston·i·est.

1. full of or abounding in stones or rock:

   a stony beach.

   Synonyms: pebbly, rocky

2. pertaining to or characteristic of stone.
3. resembling or suggesting stone, especially in its hardness.
4. unfeeling; merciless; obdurate:

   a stony heart.

   Synonyms: unbending, inflexible, pitiless, flinty, hard, adamant

5. motionless or rigid; without expression, as the eyes or a look:

   a hard, stony stare.

6. petrifying; stupefying:

   stony fear.

7. having a stone or stones, as fruit.
8. Slang. stone-broke.

stony

/ ˈstəʊnɪ /

adjective

1. of or resembling stone
2. abounding in stone or stones
3. unfeeling, heartless, or obdurate
4. See stony-broke
   short for stony-broke

Derived Forms

• ˈstonily, adverb
• ˈstoniness, noun

Other Words From

• stoni·ly adverb
• stoni·ness noun
• un·stoni·ly adverb
• un·stoni·ness noun
• un·stony adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of stony¹

before 1000; Middle English; Old English stānig. See stone, -y ¹

Example Sentences

In fact, of all underwater environments, the vertical, stony walls that mark the deep-water edges of coral reefs are among the most sublime, colorful, and ancient of Earth’s biologically produced habitats.

From Nautilus

Plankton and organic-rich sediments tumbled down the long stony walls of coral reefs.

From Nautilus

Of course it's a big world out there, and this stony pairing had indeed been noticed before, to amusing effect.

From The Daily Beast

These meteorites are so commonplace that we call them “ordinary” chondrites, or stony meteorites.

From Nautilus

Over several days, this wine danced from bright plum flavors to stony minerality, and back again to fruit, then earth, until the flavors melded into something more complex.

From Washington Post

Faced with a moping, stony-faced new partner, Beth did not selflessly set aside her own pain to help.

From The Daily Beast

It exists to make one feel things, to make the stone stony.

From The Daily Beast

Rey, after sitting for long hours in stony silence, eventually gave the police her last name.

From The Daily Beast

Sara Sonnack, a Stony Brook journalism major who will be a senior next year, says she hopes she can make the trip.

From The Daily Beast

Havel was a hero who shrugged off the title, understandably uncomfortable with the assumptions of stony perfection.

From The Daily Beast

Why didn't he send a trooper to report at once instead of wasting time in going to Stony Crossing?

From Project Gutenberg

It took us all of the next day to make the trip to Stony Crossing and back by way of the place where Rutter was buried.

From Project Gutenberg

It ended in a broad open moor, stony; and full of damp boggy hollows, forlorn and desolate under the autumn sky.

From Project Gutenberg

The tones of the neighbouring convent bell, echoing through the stony vaults, sounded loud and awful as the knell of doom.

From Project Gutenberg

Why did he quit the fruitful banks of the Euphrates for a spot so remote, so barren, and so stony as Sichem?

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• expressionless
• frigid