garnet

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Any of several common, widespread aluminum or calcium silicate minerals occurring in two internally isomorphic series, (Mg, Mn, Fe)₃Al₂Si₃O₁₂ and Ca₃(Cr, Al, Fe)₂Si₃O₁₂, generally crystallized, often embedded in igneous and metamorphic rocks, and colored red, brown, black, green, yellow, or white and used both as gemstones and as abrasives.
2. n. A dark to very dark red.
3. n. Nautical A tackle for hoisting light cargo.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. “(Webster); cf. garnet-apple. The ult. source is the same; granat and grenade are doublets.] A common mineral species embracing many varieties, which, while conforming to the same general formula, differ in composition and hence also in color, specific gravity, and fusibility. It generally occurs in distinct embedded crystals belonging to the isometric system, the rhombic dodecahedron and trapezohedron being the commonest forms. There are also massive granular varieties. It is hard, brittle, and more or less transparent. The red varieties are most common, but white, yellow, green, brown, and black also occur. The prominent varieties are: the lime-alumina garnet, including the grossular garnet, succinite, and cinnamon-stone or hessonite; the magnesia-alumina garnet, including pyrope; the iron-alumina garnet, including the almandin or the precious garnet and much common garnet; the manganese-alumina garnet or spessartite; the lime-iron garnet, sometimes called in general andradite, including haplome, colophonite, topazolite, demantoid, and melanite; the lime-chrome garnet or ouvarovite. Garnets are commonly found in gneiss, mica schist, granite, and hornblende rocks. Eclogite is a rock consisting largely of garnet. The precious garnet is transparent and deep-red, includes some pyrope, and is prized as a gem, as is also the brilliant bright-green demantoid from Siberia.
2. n. Nautical:
3. n. A sort of tackle fixed to the mainstay, and used to hoist in and out the cargo.
4. n. A clue-garnet.
5. n. A pendant rove through a hole in the spar-deck, hooked to a pendent tackle, and used in mounting or dismounting guns on the gun-deck. Also called gurnet.

Wiktionary

1. n. nautical A tackle for hoisting cargo in or out.
2. n. mineralogy A hard transparent mineral that is often used as gemstones and abrasives.
3. n. A dark red.
4. adj. Of a dark red colour.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Min.) A mineral having many varieties differing in color and in their constituents, but with the same crystallization (isometric), and conforming to the same general chemical formula. The commonest color is red, the luster is vitreous, and the hardness greater than that of quartz. The dodecahedron and trapezohedron are the common forms.
2. n. (Naut.) A tackle for hoisting cargo in or out.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. any of a group of hard glassy minerals (silicates of various metals) used as gemstones and as an abrasive