Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A stone, such as limestone, that is soft enough to be cut easily without shattering or splitting.
- n. A fruit, especially a peach, that has a stone that does not adhere to the pulp. See Regional Note at andiron.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Any species of stone composed of sand or grit, as the brownstone or brown sandstone of the eastern United States, much used in building: so called because it is easily quarried.
- n. A freestone peach: distinguished from clingstone. See II.
- Having, as a fruit, a stone from which the flesh of the fruit separates readily and cleanly, as distinguished from the quality of having a stone to which the flesh clings or adheres firmly: as, a freestone peach.
Wiktionary
- n. A type of stone that is composed of small particles and easily shaped, such as sandstone or limestone.
- n. A stone fruit having a stone (pit) that is relatively free of the flesh.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A stone composed of sand or grit; -- so called because it is easily cut or wrought.
- adj. Having the flesh readily separating from the stone, as in certain kinds of peaches.
WordNet 3.0
- n. fruit (especially peach) whose flesh does not adhere to the pit
Etymologies
- Middle English freston, translation of Old French franche pere, high-grade stone : franche, high-grade, feminine of franc, noble, freeborn + pere, stone. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The stone is said to be a hard freestone from the Mendip quarries.”
“A building material that came into use earlier than granite is known as freestone or sandstone; although its first employment does not date back further than the erection of King's Chapel, Boston, already referred to as the earliest well-known occasion where granite was used in building.”
“The flesh of a "freestone" peach separates easily from the pit and so lends itself to recipes requiring attractive peach halves or slices.”
The Huffington Post: Steve Poses: Farm Stands of Salem County, NJ
“All the houses along the Undercliff are constructed with a beautiful kind of freestone procured on the spot.”
“The ridges themselves were formed of a coarse kind of freestone in a state of rapid decomposition.”
Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia — Complete
“A quar* rj has some time ago been opened in Lee - moor; one lately at the Boathouses in the S. £. corner of the parifli; and a coarse kind of freestone is to be had npon the Moafs on the Jerviswood estate, but hitherto has been discoTcred no where else.”
“The source of continual expense was due to mansion being constructed of Virginia freestone, which was exceedingly porous, which needed a thick coat of white lead every ten years to keep the dampness from penetrating to the interior.”
“Then, when its blackened freestone walls were repainted white to hide the traces of the fire, it was rechristened “The White House”.”
“While a pretty peach half from a freestone is perfect for poaching or grilling, cling peach pieces work in things like cobblers, chutneys and butters.”
The Huffington Post: Steve Poses: Farm Stands of Salem County, NJ
“Early varieties Sentry, a semi-freestone yellow fruit, and Sweet Scarlets, a yellow freestone with white peach flavor, are ready.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘freestone’.
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color (brown)
tiara's color lists rebuilt :)
( visual, colors, brown, descriptive, randomness )brown, Sandy, Amber, Coffee, Chocolate, Dark Chocolate, Hazelnut, Milk Chocolate, Bronze, Nutmeg, Cinnamon, Beige and 248 more...
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phrontistery - f
from phrontistery.info
fabaceous, fabiform, fabulist, faburden, face-cord, facetiae, facia, facinorous, factious, factitious, factitive, factive and 418 more...
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color (yellow)
tiara's color lists rebuilt :)
( visual, colors, yellow, descriptive, randomness )yellow, Yellow, Cloud, Straw/Stramineous, Peach, Apricot/Ibis, Lemon, Butter, Mustard, Meline/Canary, Gold(Metallic, Web and 405 more...
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In The Colorhouse
A colorhouse - a manufactory of colors for tints, dyes, pigments, paints, glazes, &c. Terms associated with the science and history of colormaking.
All sorts of things went into color...colorhouse, Turkey red, dyebath, woad, ocher, lead white, mordant, Naples yellow, zaffer, kiln, vat, pot and 298 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, F
felony, frolic, fend, fuselage, farthingale, freewheeling, frigorific, flummery, fancypants, felsitic, flagstone, flageolet and 295 more...
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Castles and Keeps
Shamelessly ripped off from this site and others (to be named hereinafter). (Fair warning: for my own edification, I may add definitions/comments from the site, but you might want to just go there ...
abutment, adulterine, allure, angle-spur, apse, arbalest, arbalestier, arbalist, arcade, arch, armoury, arrow slit and 410 more...
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Compounds That Look Freakish
You know who you are, freakish compounds. Though very useful, some of these words just don't seem right together--or, their meanings are so far from what the two (or more) component words suggest t...
nightjar, bullfinch, grassquit, bananaquit, ovenbird, waxwing, stonechat, wheatear, bushtit, wrentit, starthroat, godwit and 158 more...
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Chromonyms
These chromonyms are defined as colors in at least one dictionary (mostly MW3). (Actually there's one fake, for reasons I'll explain someday.) They are all one-word nouns such as "kelly", which can...
absinthe, acacia, acorn, alabaster, alesan, almond, aloma, amaranth, amber, amethyst, anemone, anil and 821 more...
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Forest For The Trees
Words to describe forests, tree parts & tree culture.
petiole, deciduous, phytoremediation, riparian zone, scion, xeriscape, samara, freestone, clingstone, blowdown, butt log, sylvan and 49 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for freestone.
hernesheir "I saw her hand: she has a leathern hand, a freestone-color'd hand; I verily did think that her old gloves were on, but 'twas her hands;" Shakespeare, As You Like It, 1599. Dec 5, 2012
bilby "And true it is that he did many of these things; but had he done nothing more I should have left him to have recorded his own merit on some fair freestone over the door of that hospital."
- Henry Fielding, 'The History of Tom Jones'. Sep 8, 2009
chained_bear In castle architecture, stone which is easily cut and molded, such as fine-grained limestone or sandstone. Aug 25, 2008