jade

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Either of two distinct minerals, nephrite and jadeite, that are generally pale green or white and are used mainly as gemstones or in carving.
2. n. A carving made of jade.
3. n. Jade green.
4. v. To wear out, as by overuse or overindulgence. See Synonyms at tire¹.
5. v. To become weary or spiritless.
6. n. A broken-down or useless horse; a nag.
7. n. A woman regarded as disreputable or shrewish.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A mare, especially an old mare; any old or worn-out horse; a mean or sorry nag.
2. n. Hence A mean or worthless person, originally applied to either sex, but now only to a woman; a wench; a hussy; a quean: used opprobriously.
3. n. A young woman: used in irony or playfully.
4. To treat as a jade; kick or spurn.
5. To reduce to the condition of a jade; tire out; ride or drive without sparing; overdrive: as, to jade a horse.
6. To weary or fatigue, in general.
7. Synonyms and Weary, Fatigue, etc. See tire, transitive verb
8. To become weary; fail; give out.
9. n. A tough compact stone, varying from nearly white to pale or dark green in color, much used in prehistoric times for weapons and utensils, and highly prized, especially in the East, for ornamental Carvings. Two distinct minerals are included under the name. One of these is nephrite, a closely compact variety of hornblende (amphibole), classed with tremolite when nearly white and with actinolite when of a distinct green color; it is fusible with some difficulty, and has a specific gravity of from 2.9 to 3. The other is jadeite, which is a silicate of aluminium and sodium, analogous in formula to spodumene; a variety af a dark-green color and containing iron has been called chloromelanite. It is more fusible than nephrite, and has a higher specific gravity, viz. 3.3. This is the kind of jade most highly valued. Its translucency and color, varying from a creamy white through different shades of delicate green, give great beauty to the vases and other objects carved from it. The Chinese, who have long made use of jade for rings, bracelets, vases, etc., call it yu or yu-shih (jade-stone). A variety of jadeite having a pale-green color is called by them fei ts'ui, or kingfisher-plumes. The best-known locality from which jade has been obtained is the Kara-Kash valley in eastern Turkestan. Jade implements have been found in considerable numbers among the relics of the Swiss lake-dwellers, but it is generally believed that the material was brought from the East; they are also found in New Zealand, in the islands of the Pacific, in Central America, Alaska, and elsewhere, and the facts of their distribution are of great interest in ethnography. (See cut under ax.) The word jade, is sometimes extended to embrace other minerals of similar characters and hence admitting of like use, as zoisite (saussurite, the jade of De Saussure and jade tenace of Haüy), fibrolite, a kind of serpentine, and others. Also called ax-stone, and by the Maoris of New Zealand punamu.
10. To make a fool of; scorn.

Wiktionary

1. n. A horse too old to be put to work.
2. n. A woman, especially in contempt.
3. v. To tire, weary or fatigue
4. n. uncountable A semiprecious stone either nephrite or jadeite, generally green or white in color, often used for carving figurines.
5. n. A grayish shade of green, typical of jade stones.
6. adj. Of a grayish shade of green, typical of jade stones.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Min.) A stone, commonly of a pale to dark green color but sometimes whitish. It is very hard and compact, capable of fine polish, and is used for ornamental purposes and for implements, esp. in Eastern countries and among many early peoples.
2. n. A color resembling that of jade{1}; it varies from yellowish-green to bluish-green.
3. n. A mean or tired horse; a worthless nag.
4. n. A disreputable or vicious woman; a wench; a quean; also, sometimes, a worthless man.
5. n. A young woman; -- generally so called in irony or slight contempt.
6. v. obsolete To treat like a jade; to spurn.
7. v. obsolete To make ridiculous and contemptible.
8. v. To exhaust by overdriving or long-continued labor of any kind; to tire, make dull, or wear out by severe or tedious tasks; to harass.
9. v. To become weary; to lose spirit.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a light green color varying from bluish green to yellowish green
2. v. lose interest or become bored with something or somebody
3. adj. of something having the color of jade; especially varying from bluish green to yellowish green
4. v. exhaust or get tired through overuse or great strain or stress
5. n. a woman adulterer
6. n. an old or over-worked horse
7. n. a semiprecious gemstone that takes a high polish; is usually green but sometimes whitish; consists of jadeite or nephrite