ivory

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"Why, no doubt has ever entered your head that the ivory is there?" questioned Harry.

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Definitions (28)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (11)

  1. noun A hard, smooth, yellowish-white substance composed primarily of dentin that forms the tusks of the elephant.
  2. noun A similar substance forming the tusks or teeth of certain other mammals, such as the walrus.
  3. noun A tusk, especially an elephant's tusk.
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Examples

  • From the West Coast of Africa we get ivory which is always translucent, with a dark outside or coating, but partly hard and partly soft. —  The Last Journals of David Livingstone from 1865 to His Death
  • In addition to the above a few tons of Mammoth ivory are received from time to time from the Arctic regions and Siberia, and although of unknown antiquity, some tusks are equal in every respect to ivory which is obtained in the present day from elephants newly killed; this, no doubt, is owing to the preservative effects of the ice in which the animals have been imbedded for many thousands of years. —  The Last Journals of David Livingstone from 1865 to His Death
  • As the horns of deer vary in different localities, so the ivory is also larger and of superior quality in certain districts. —  The Rifle and The Hound in Ceylon
  • "Why, no doubt has ever entered your head that the ivory is there?" questioned Harry. —  The Boy Aviators in Africa
  • On the ivory was a portrait of a girl. —  Sweet Danger - Margery Allingham - Campion 05: 1933
 

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

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Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

bronze ·  silver ·  marble ·  ebony ·  porcelain ·  jade ·  golden ·  pearl ·  plastic ·  gild ·  amber ·  leather
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 (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English ivorie, from Old French ivoire, ivurie, from Latin eboreus, of ivory, from ebur, ebor-, ivory, from Coptic ebou, elephant, from Egyptian 'bw.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Early modern English also ivorie; from Middle English ivory, ivorie, yvory, yvorie, evorye, also ivore, yvore, ivoure, ivere, yvere, yver, evour, from Old French ivurie, *ivorie, later ivoire, French ivoire = Provencal evori, avori, bori = Italian avorio, avoro, from Middle Latin eboreum, ivory, properly neuter of Latin eboreus, of ivory, from ebur, ivory: see ebunine.
  2. Named for James Ivory (1765–1842), who published a celebrated memoir on the attractions of homogeneous ellipsoids in 1809.
 

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/ˈaɪvəri/
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