stony

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: ston=y

CIDE DICTIONARY

stony, a. [AS. stānig. See Stone.].

•  Of or pertaining to stone, consisting of, or abounding in, stone or stones; resembling stone; hard; as, a stony tower; a stony cave; stony ground; a stony crust.  [1913 Webster]
•  Converting into stone; petrifying; petrific.  [1913 Webster]

  "The stony dart of senseless cold."  [1913 Webster]
•  Inflexible; cruel; unrelenting; pitiless; obdurate; perverse; cold; morally hard; appearing as if petrified; as, a stony heart; a stony gaze.  [1913 Webster]

Stony coral. (Zoöl.) Same as Stone coral, under Stone.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

stony, adj. (stonier, stoniest)
1 full of or covered with stones (stony soil; a stony road).
2 a hard, rigid. b cold, unfeeling, uncompromising (a stony stare; a stony silence).

Idiom

stony-broke Brit. sl. entirely without money. stony-hearted unfeeling, obdurate.

Derivative

stonily adv. stoniness n.

Etymology

OE stanig (as STONE)

THESAURUS

stony

Philistine, adamant, adamantine, bankrupt, beat, beggared, bony, broke, busted, callous, calloused, case-hardened, cement, cemental, chilly, cold, cold-blooded, coldhearted, concrete, corneous, corrugated, cragged, craggy, crinkled, crumpled, crystal, crystalline, dense, destitute, diamondlike, dure, flat, flat broke, flintlike, flinty, fortuneless, frigid, granitelike, granitic, gravelly, gritty, hard, hard as nails, hard-boiled, hardened, hardhearted, harsh, heartless, horny, icy, impervious, implacable, indifferent, indigent, indurated, inflexible, insensible, insensitive, intractable, inured, iron-hard, ironbound, ironlike, jagged, jaggy, lapideous, lithoid, lithoidal, marble, marblelike, merciless, monolithic, needy, obdurate, oofless, osseous, pachydermatous, pebbled, pebbly, penniless, pitiless, poor, porphyritic, poverty-stricken, proof against, ragged, resistant, resistive, rock-ribbed, rock-strewn, rock-studded, rockbound, rocklike, rocky, rugged, rugose, rugous, sandy, saw-toothed, sawtooth, scragged, scraggly, scraggy, serrate, serrated, shingled, shingly, snagged, snaggled, snaggy, solid, steeled against, steellike, steely, stone-broke, stonelike, strapped, thick-skinned, tough, trachytic, uncompassionate, unfeeling, unresponsive, unsentimental, unsympathetic, wrinkled

ROGET THESAURUS

stony

Hardness

N hardness, rigidity, renitence, renitency, inflexibility, temper, callosity, durity, induration, petrifaction, lapidification, lapidescence, vitrification, ossification, crystallization, stone, pebble, flint, marble, rock, fossil, crag, crystal, quartz, granite, adamant, bone, cartilage, hardware, heart of oak, block, board, deal board, iron, steel, cast iron, decarbonized iron, wrought iron, nail, brick, concrete, cement, hard, rigid, stubborn, stiff, firm, starch, starched, stark, unbending, unlimber, unyielding, inflexible, tense, indurate, indurated, gritty, proof, adamant, adamantine, adamantean, concrete, stony, granitic, calculous, lithic, vitreous, horny, corneous, bony, osseous, ossific, cartilaginous, hard as a rock, stiff as buckram, stiff as a poker, stiff as starch, stiff as as board.