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Stone (Material obtained from rocks)

the material obtained from rocks; the kind of substance they produce. Also a gem; a precious stone. Something made of stone; as a monument erected to preserve the memory of the dead; a gravestone. Something which resembles a stone; as (a) a calcareous concretion in the kidneys or bladder; hence, the disease arising from a calculus (see CALCULUS); (b) the nut of a drupe or stone fruit; the hard covering inclosing the kernel, and itself inclosed by the pericarp; the hard and bony endocarp of a drupaceous fruit.

The word is also applied to a measure of weight in use throughout the northwest and central countries of Europe, but varying much in different places.

The English imperial standard stone is a weight of 14 pounds avoirdupois, but there are stones of other weights for particular commodities; thus the stone STONE of butcher's meat or fish is 8 pounds, of cheese 16 pounds, of hemp 32 pounds, of glass 5 pounds, etc.

Stone is not used as a technical term in either petrology or geology, though it enters into the composition of words in those sciences, as Portland stone.