alabaster

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“
Her neck was as pure as the alabaster, her bosom as white as ivory, her soft blue eyes like liquid orbs adorning the face of beauty, whilst her fair hair flowed in graceful ringlets upon her neck and shoulders.

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Definitions (12)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. noun A dense translucent, white or tinted fine-grained gypsum.
  2. noun A variety of hard calcite, translucent and sometimes banded.
  3. noun A pale yellowish pink to yellowish gray.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (4)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples (50)

  • Purest alabaster, her complexion reminded him of rich cream, smooth, luscious; his fingers itched to touch, to stroke. —  Stephanie Laurens - A Fine Passion
  • Her complexion was unblemished alabaster, her eyes the same cornflower blue as her gown. —  Rose in Bloom
  • If I say her skin was like alabaster, her hair a black so true it gleamed blue where the light touched it and her eyes a sapphire that gemstones might envy, I speak only the truth; but she was a D'Angeline, and this only hints at the beginning of beauty. —  Carey, Jaqueline - Kushiel's Dart orig
  • Pattinson is fantastic as the alabaster-skinned Cullen; wonderfully handsome and brooding with Byronic anguish and their developing romance is beautifully shot through snow covered trees and mountain ranges.
  • A gallery of idols with skins as white as alabaster, as pure as the driven snow. —  AnimeBlogger.net Antenna
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

onyx ·  porphyry ·  obsidian ·  jade ·  porcelain ·  marble ·  ivory ·  lazuli ·  bronze ·  terra-cotta ·  granite ·  amethyst
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English alabastre, from Old French, from Latin alabaster, from Greek alabastros, alabastos, possibly of Egyptian origin.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Early modern English usually alablaster, allablaster, from Middle English alabastre, alabaster, alabaustre, alabast (= Old Dutch alabast, abast, Dutch albast = Danish alabast = Swedish albaster, now alabaster), from Old French alabastre, French albâtre = Spanish Portuguese Italian alabastro = Middle High German G. alabaster, from Middle Latin alabastrum, alabaustrum, alabaster (the mineral), from Latin alabaster, masculine, alabastrum, neuter, a box or casket for perfumes, unguents, etc., tapering to a point at the top, hence also the form of a rose-bud, = Gothic (Moesogothic) alabalstraun, from Greek ἀλάβαστρος, masculine, ἀλάβαστρον, neuter, earlier and more correctly ἀλάβαστος, a box, casket, or vase of alabaster (later also of other materials), the mineral itself being hence known as ἀλαβαστίτης or ἀλαβαστρίτης, Latin alabastrites (see alabastrites); said to be named from a town in Egypt where there were quarries of alabaster; but in fact the town was named from the quarries, )Αλαβαστρῶνπόλις (Ptolemy), Latin Alabastrōn oppidum, i. e., ‘town of alabastra.’ In Arabic and Persian alabaster is called rukhām.
 

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/ˈæləbæstər/
by American Heritage
by peggy tharpe

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