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The Collaborative International Dictionary
bustard

Stone \Stone\, n. [OE. ston, stan, AS. st[=a]n; akin to OS. & OFries. st[=e]n, D. steen, G. stein, Icel. steinn, Sw. sten, Dan. steen, Goth. stains, Russ. stiena a wall, Gr. ?, ?, a pebble. [root]167. Cf. Steen.]

  1. Concreted earthy or mineral matter; also, any particular mass of such matter; as, a house built of stone; the boy threw a stone; pebbles are rounded stones. ``Dumb as a stone.''
    --Chaucer.

    They had brick for stone, and slime . . . for mortar.
    --Gen. xi. 3.

    Note: In popular language, very large masses of stone are called rocks; small masses are called stones; and the finer kinds, gravel, or sand, or grains of sand. Stone is much and widely used in the construction of buildings of all kinds, for walls, fences, piers, abutments, arches, monuments, sculpture, and the like.

  2. A precious stone; a gem. ``Many a rich stone.''
    --Chaucer. ``Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels.''
    --Shak.

  3. Something made of stone. Specifically:

    1. The glass of a mirror; a mirror. [Obs.]

      Lend me a looking-glass; If that her breath will mist or stain the stone, Why, then she lives.
      --Shak.

    2. A monument to the dead; a gravestone.
      --Gray.

      Should some relenting eye Glance on the where our cold relics lie.
      --Pope.

  4. (Med.) A calculous concretion, especially one in the kidneys or bladder; the disease arising from a calculus.

  5. One of the testes; a testicle.
    --Shak.

  6. (Bot.) The hard endocarp of drupes; as, the stone of a cherry or peach. See Illust. of Endocarp.

  7. A weight which legally is fourteen pounds, but in practice varies with the article weighed. [Eng.]

    Note: The stone of butchers' meat or fish is reckoned at 8 lbs.; of cheese, 16 lbs.; of hemp, 32 lbs.; of glass, 5 lbs.

  8. Fig.: Symbol of hardness and insensibility; torpidness; insensibility; as, a heart of stone.

    I have not yet forgot myself to stone.
    --Pope.

  9. (Print.) A stand or table with a smooth, flat top of stone, commonly marble, on which to arrange the pages of a book, newspaper, etc., before printing; -- called also imposing stone. Note: Stone is used adjectively or in composition with other words to denote made of stone, containing a stone or stones, employed on stone, or, more generally, of or pertaining to stone or stones; as, stone fruit, or stone-fruit; stone-hammer, or stone hammer; stone falcon, or stone-falcon. Compounded with some adjectives it denotes a degree of the quality expressed by the adjective equal to that possessed by a stone; as, stone-dead, stone-blind, stone-cold, stone-still, etc. Atlantic stone, ivory. [Obs.] ``Citron tables, or Atlantic stone.'' --Milton. Bowing stone. Same as Cromlech. --Encyc. Brit. Meteoric stones, stones which fall from the atmosphere, as after the explosion of a meteor. Philosopher's stone. See under Philosopher. Rocking stone. See Rocking-stone. Stone age, a supposed prehistoric age of the world when stone and bone were habitually used as the materials for weapons and tools; -- called also flint age. The bronze age succeeded to this. Stone bass (Zo["o]l.), any one of several species of marine food fishes of the genus Serranus and allied genera, as Serranus Couchii, and Polyprion cernium of Europe; -- called also sea perch. Stone biter (Zo["o]l.), the wolf fish. Stone boiling, a method of boiling water or milk by dropping hot stones into it, -- in use among savages. --Tylor. Stone borer (Zo["o]l.), any animal that bores stones; especially, one of certain bivalve mollusks which burrow in limestone. See Lithodomus, and Saxicava. Stone bramble (Bot.), a European trailing species of bramble ( Rubus saxatilis). Stone-break. [Cf. G. steinbrech.] (Bot.) Any plant of the genus Saxifraga; saxifrage. Stone bruise, a sore spot on the bottom of the foot, from a bruise by a stone. Stone canal. (Zo["o]l.) Same as Sand canal, under Sand. Stone cat (Zo["o]l.), any one of several species of small fresh-water North American catfishes of the genus Noturus. They have sharp pectoral spines with which they inflict painful wounds. Stone coal, hard coal; mineral coal; anthracite coal. Stone coral (Zo["o]l.), any hard calcareous coral. Stone crab. (Zo["o]l.)

    1. A large crab ( Menippe mercenaria) found on the southern coast of the United States and much used as food.

    2. A European spider crab ( Lithodes maia). Stone crawfish (Zo["o]l.), a European crawfish ( Astacus torrentium), by many writers considered only a variety of the common species ( A. fluviatilis). Stone curlew. (Zo["o]l.)

      1. A large plover found in Europe ( Edicnemus crepitans). It frequents stony places. Called also thick-kneed plover or bustard, and thick-knee.

      2. The whimbrel. [Prov. Eng.]

    3. The willet. [Local, U.S.] Stone crush. Same as Stone bruise, above. Stone eater. (Zo["o]l.) Same as Stone borer, above. Stone falcon (Zo["o]l.), the merlin. Stone fern (Bot.), a European fern ( Asplenium Ceterach) which grows on rocks and walls. Stone fly (Zo["o]l.), any one of many species of pseudoneuropterous insects of the genus Perla and allied genera; a perlid. They are often used by anglers for bait. The larv[ae] are aquatic. Stone fruit (Bot.), any fruit with a stony endocarp; a drupe, as a peach, plum, or cherry. Stone grig (Zo["o]l.), the mud lamprey, or pride. Stone hammer, a hammer formed with a face at one end, and a thick, blunt edge, parallel with the handle, at the other, -- used for breaking stone. Stone hawk (Zo["o]l.), the merlin; -- so called from its habit of sitting on bare stones. Stone jar, a jar made of stoneware. Stone lily (Paleon.), a fossil crinoid. Stone lugger. (Zo["o]l.) See Stone roller, below. Stone marten (Zo["o]l.), a European marten ( Mustela foina) allied to the pine marten, but having a white throat; -- called also beech marten. Stone mason, a mason who works or builds in stone. Stone-mortar (Mil.), a kind of large mortar formerly used in sieges for throwing a mass of small stones short distances. Stone oil, rock oil, petroleum. Stone parsley (Bot.), an umbelliferous plant ( Seseli Labanotis). See under Parsley. Stone pine. (Bot.) A nut pine. See the Note under Pine, and Pi[~n]on. Stone pit, a quarry where stones are dug. Stone pitch, hard, inspissated pitch. Stone plover. (Zo["o]l.)

      1. The European stone curlew.

      2. Any one of several species of Asiatic plovers of the genus Esacus; as, the large stone plover ( E. recurvirostris).

      3. The gray or black-bellied plover. [Prov. Eng.]

    4. The ringed plover.

    5. The bar-tailed godwit. [Prov. Eng.] Also applied to other species of limicoline birds. Stone roller. (Zo["o]l.)

      1. An American fresh-water fish ( Catostomus nigricans) of the Sucker family. Its color is yellowish olive, often with dark blotches. Called also stone lugger, stone toter, hog sucker, hog mullet.

      2. A common American cyprinoid fish ( Campostoma anomalum); -- called also stone lugger. Stone's cast, or Stone's throw, the distance to which a stone may be thrown by the hand; as, they live a stone's throw from each other. Stone snipe (Zo["o]l.), the greater yellowlegs, or tattler. Stone toter. (Zo["o]l.)

        1. See Stone roller (a), above.

        2. A cyprinoid fish ( Exoglossum maxillingua) found in the rivers from Virginia to New York. It has a three-lobed lower lip; -- called also cutlips.

          To leave no stone unturned, to do everything that can be done; to use all practicable means to effect an object.

bustard

bustard \bus"tard\ (b[u^]s"t[~e]rd), n. [OF. & Prov. F. bistarde, F. outarde, from L. avis tarda, lit., slow bird.
--Plin. 10, 22; ``proxim[ae] iis sunt, quas Hispania aves tardas appellat, Gr[ae]cia 'wti`das.''] (Zo["o]l.) A bird of the genus Otis.

Note: The great or bearded bustard ( Otis tarda) is the largest game bird in Europe. It inhabits the temperate regions of Europe and Asia, and was formerly common in Great Britain. The little bustard ( Otis tetrax) inhabits eastern Europe and Morocco. Many other species are known in Asia and Africa.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
bustard

large crane-like bird, mid-15c. (late 14c. as a surname), from Old French bistarde, said to be from Latin avis tarda, but the sense of this ("slow bird") is the opposite of the bird's behavior.

Wiktionary
bustard

n. Any of several large terrestrial birds of the family Otididae that inhabit dry open country and steppes in the Old World.

WordNet
bustard

n. large heavy-bodied chiefly terrestrial game bird capable of powerful swift flight; classified with wading birds but frequents grassy steppes

Wikipedia
Bustard

Bustards, including floricans and korhaans, are large and highly terrestrial birds mainly associated with dry open country and steppes in the Old World. They range in length from . They make up the family Otididae (formerly known as Otidae). Bustards are omnivorous and opportunistic, eating leaves, buds, seeds, fruit, small vertebrates, and invertebrates.

Usage examples of "bustard".

Larks and pipits were everywhere on the steppes, willow grouse, ptarmigan, and partridges, sand grouse and great bustards, and beautiful demoiselle cranes, bluish-gray with black heads and white tufts of feathers behind the eyes.

We hae had a noble flight at the heron, and anither just as guid after the bustard.

That interfering old bustard Brough took a fancy to protect me from an injustice and made away with it.

That was about six months earlier than the time of which I write, and during those months I had often used this rifle for the shooting of game, such as blesbuck and also of bustards.

We may imagine that the early progenitor of the ostrich had habits like those of a bustard, and that as natural selection increased in successive generations the size and weight of its body, its legs were used more, and its wings less, until they became incapable of flight.

The latter, knowing well that without special tools it would be nearly impossible for him to manufacture a gun which would be of any use, still drew back and put off the operation to some future time, observing in his usual dry way, that Herbert and Spilett had become very skilful archers, so that many sorts of excellent animals, agouties, kangaroos, capybaras, pigeons, bustards, wild ducks, snipes, in short, game both with fur and feathers, fell victims to their arrows, and that, consequently, they could wait.

Simon, who was walking parallel with them, Caro by his side, watched in some surprise as Meg gently helped her niece to kneel down in order to inspect more easily the cranes and bustards which were running around an enclosed lawn with a pond at one end.

He had a capital income from the business--for Soames, like his father, was a member of that well-known firm of solicitors, Forsyte, Bustard and Forsyte--and had always been very careful.

When he reached the office of Forsyte, Bustard and Forsyte, he found Soames, sitting in his revolving, chair, drawing up a defence.

He was really at the head of the business, for though James still came nearly every day to, see for himself, he did little now but sit in his chair, twist his legs, slightly confuse things already decided, and presently go away again, and the other partner, Bustard, was a poor thing, who did a great deal of work, but whose opinion was never taken.

By a chance, fortuitous but not improbable in the close borough of legal circles, a good deal of information came to Soames' ear anent this line of policy, the working partner in his firm, Bustard, happening to sit next at dinner at Walmisley's, the Taxing Master, to young Chankery, of the Common Law Bar.

The necessity for talking what is known as 'shop,' which comes on all lawyers with the removal of the ladies, caused Chankery, a young and promising advocate, to propound an impersonal conundrum to his neighbour, whose name he did not know, for, seated as he permanently was in the background, Bustard had practically no name.

This was the very afternoon of the day that young Jolyon witnessed the meeting in the Botanical Gardens, and on this day, too, old Jolyon paid a visit to his solicitors, Forsyte, Bustard, and Forsyte, in the Poultry.

Jolyon with his son and grandchildren to the fact that he had taken his Will away from Forsyte, Bustard and Forsyte.

Hercules singed the bustard to get off the feathers, then buried the carcass under the coals to bake.