Ivory

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: i=vo=ry

CIDE DICTIONARY

Ivory, n. [OE. ivori, F. ivoire, fr. L. eboreus made of ivory, fr. ebur, eboris, ivory, cf. Skr. ibha elephant. Cf. Eburnean.].

•  The hard, white, opaque, fine-grained substance constituting the tusks of the elephant. It is a variety of dentine, characterized by the minuteness and close arrangement of the tubes, as also by their double flexure. It is used in manufacturing articles of ornament or utility.  [1913 Webster]

  " Ivory is the name commercially given not only to the substance constituting the tusks of the elephant, but also to that of the tusks of the hippopotamus and walrus, the hornlike tusk of the narwhal, etc."  [1913 Webster]
•  The tusks themselves of the elephant, etc.  [1913 Webster]
•  Any carving executed in ivory.  Mollett.  [1913 Webster]
•  Teeth; as, to show one's ivories.  [1913 Webster]

Ivory black. See under Black, n. -- Ivory gull (Zoöl.), a white Arctic gull (Larus eburneus). -- Ivory nut (Bot.), the nut of a species of palm, the Phytephas macroarpa, often as large as a hen's egg. When young the seed contains a fluid, which gradually hardness into a whitish, close-grained, albuminous substance, resembling the finest ivory in texture and color, whence it is called vegetable ivory. It is wrought into various articles, as buttons, chessmen, etc. The palm is found in New Grenada. A smaller kind is the fruit of the Phytephas microarpa. The nuts are known in commerce as Corosso nuts. -- Ivory palm (Bot.), the palm tree which produces ivory nuts. -- Ivory shell (Zoöl.), any species of Eburna, a genus of marine gastropod shells, having a smooth surface, usually white with red or brown spots. -- Vegetable ivory, the meat of the ivory nut. See Ivory nut (above).

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Ivory, n. (pl. -ies)
1 a hard creamy-white substance composing the main part of the tusks of an elephant, hippopotamus, walrus, and narwhal.
2 the colour of this.
3 (usu. in pl.) a an article made of ivory. b sl. anything made of or resembling ivory, esp. a piano key or a tooth.

Idiom

fossil ivory ivory from the tusks of a mammoth. ivory black black pigment from calcined ivory or bone. ivory-nut the seed of a corozo palm, Phytelephas macrocarpa, used as a source of vegetable ivory for carving: also called corozo-nut. ivory tower a state of seclusion or separation from the ordinary world and the harsh realities of life. vegetable ivory a hard white material obtained from the endosperm of the ivory-nut.

Derivative

ivoried adj.

Etymology

ME f. OF yvoire ult. f. L ebur eboris

THESAURUS

Ivory

alabaster, alabastrine, albescent, billiard table, bones, bowling alley, bowling green, chalk, cream, creamy, cubes, dice, driven snow, dun-white, eggshell, fair, flat, fleece, flour, foam, glass, glaucescent, glaucous, gray-white, ice, ivory-white, level, light, lily, lint-white, maggot, mahogany, marble, milk, off-white, pale, paper, pearl, pearly, pearly-white, plane, satin, sheet, silk, silver, slide, smooth, snow, swan, tennis court, velvet, whitish, whity

ROGET THESAURUS

Ivory

Whiteness

N whiteness, argent, albification, etiolation, lactescence, snow, paper, chalk, milk, lily, ivory, alabaster, albata, eburin, German silver, white metal, barium sulphate, titanium oxide, blanc fixe, ceruse, pearl white, white lead, carbonate of lead, white, milk-white, snow-white, snowy, niveous, candid, chalky, hoar, hoary, silvery, argent, argentine, canescent, cretaceous, lactescent, whitish, creamy, pearly, fair, blond, blanched, high in tone, light, white as a sheet, white as driven snow, white as a lily, white as silver, like ivory.