gem

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A pearl or mineral that has been cut and polished for use as an ornament.
2. n. Something that is valued for its beauty or perfection: a little gem of a book.
3. n. A beloved or highly prized person.
4. n. A type of muffin.
5. v. To adorn with or as if with precious or semiprecious stones.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A bud; especially, a leaf-bud. See gemma, 1.
2. n. A precious stone of any kind, as the diamond, ruby, topaz, emerald, etc., especially when cut and polished for ornamental purposes; a jewel.
3. n. Something likened to a gem; a beautiful, splendid, or costly object.
4. n. In entomology, the small geometrid moth Camptogramma fluviata: an English collectors' name.
5. To put forth in buds; bud.
6. To adorn with gems, jewels, or precious stones.
7. To bespangle; embellish or adorn as if with gems: as, foliage gemmed with dewdrops.
8. n. The name given by English type-founders to a body of type that is intermediate between brilliant and diamond.
9. n. A cake made with flour or corn meal, sometimes sweetened, and usually baked in a sheet of small, shallow pans.
10. To exploit in searching for gems; search for gems in: as, the right to gem a river or a tract of land.

Wiktionary

1. n. A precious stone, usually of substantial monetary value or prized for its beauty or shine.
2. n. figuratively any precious or highly valued thing or person
3. n. obsolete a gemma or leaf-bud
4. n. a type of geometrid moth, Orthonama obstipata
5. n. computing A package containing programs or libraries for the Ruby programming language.
6. v. transitive To adorn with, or as if with, gems.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Bot.) A bud.
2. n. A precious stone of any kind, as the ruby, emerald, topaz, sapphire, beryl, spinel, etc., especially when cut and polished for ornament; a jewel.
3. n. Anything of small size, or expressed within brief limits, which is regarded as a gem on account of its beauty or value, as a small picture, a verse of poetry, a witty or wise saying.
4. v. rare, rare To put forth in the form of buds.
5. v. To adorn with gems or precious stones.
6. v. To embellish or adorn, as with gems.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a precious or semiprecious stone incorporated into a piece of jewelry
2. n. a person who is as brilliant and precious as a piece of jewelry
3. n. art highly prized for its beauty or perfection
4. n. a sweet quick bread baked in a cup-shaped pan
5. n. a crystalline rock that can be cut and polished for jewelry