Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Lazuli \Laz"u*li\, n. [F. & NL. lapis lazuli, LL. lazulus, lazurius, lazur from the same Oriental source as E. azure. See Azure.] (Min.) A mineral of a fine azure-blue color, usually in small rounded masses. It is essentially a silicate of alumina, lime, and soda, with some sodium sulphide, is often marked by yellow spots or veins of sulphide of iron, and is much valued for ornamental work. Called also lapis lazuli, and Armenian stone.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
early 15c., from Middle Latin lapis lazuli, literally "stone of azure," from Latin lapis "stone" + Medieval Latin lazuli, genitive of lazulum, from Arabic lazuward (see azure).
Wiktionary
a. Of a deep, bright blue, like that of the stone. n. 1 (context mineralogy English) A deep blue stone, used in making jewelry. 2 A deep, bright blue, like that of the stone.
WordNet
n. an azure blue semiprecious stone [syn: lazuli]
Wikipedia
Lapis lazuli , , or lapis for short, is a deep blue semi-precious stone prized since antiquity for its intense color. Lapis lazuli was mined in the Sar-i Sang mines and in other mines in the Badakhshan province in northeast Afghanistan as early as the 7th millennium BC. Lapis beads have been found at neolithic burials in Mehrgarh, the Caucasus, and even as far from Afghanistan as Mauritania. It was used for the eyebrows, among other features, on the funeral mask of Tutankhamun (1341–1323 BC).(ed.)
At the end of the Middle Ages, lapis lazuli began to be exported to Europe, where it was ground into powder and made into ultramarine, the finest and most expensive of all blue pigments. It was used by some of the most important artists of the Renaissance and Baroque, including Masaccio, Perugino, Titian and Vermeer, and was often reserved for the clothing of the central figures of their paintings, especially the Virgin Mary.
Today mines in northeast Afghanistan and Pakistan are still the major source of lapis lazuli. Important amounts are also produced from mines west of Lake Baikal in Russia, and in the Andes mountains in Chile. Smaller quantities are mined in Italy, Mongolia, the United States and Canada.
Usage examples of "lapis lazuli".
A crew is necessary- can't let a ship go running around by itself-except automatic freighters on precalculated runs-but Dora does the hard work, and Laz and Lor-Lapis Lazuli Long and Lorelei Lee Long-tell Dora what to do and let her do it.
She could not see her hands held out in front of her face, although blue flashed from her finger: the lapis lazuli ring given to her by Alain which, he had promised her, would protect her from evil.
She twisted the lapis lazuli ring on her finger and with an effort wiped away her tears.
Not just any old cavern either, but a towering lapis lazuli hall, covered in golden hieroglyphs.
When she absently moved the valuable chunk of lapis lazuli to clear more space to draw, he shook his head in disbelief.
Tentatively they are: Dr Maureen with Lapis Lazuli as her scrub nurse.
The mural filled the entire wall, broken only at the far right by a curtain dyed the deep blue of lapis lazuli and worked into the design of the painting as the depths of the sea.
Her braid was coiled on top of her head, held there by the lapis lazuli comb.
He rubbed his hands together to warm them and caught a finger on the ring Baldwin had slipped on his fingera fine piece of lapis lazuli simply set in a plain silver band.