jasper

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. An opaque cryptocrystalline variety of quartz that may be red, yellow, or brown.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Among the ancients, a bright-colored chalcedony (not, however, including carnelian), translucent and varying in color, green being apparently most common. It was highly esteemed as a precious stone.
2. n. In modern usage, a closely compact crypto-crystalline variety of quartz, opaque or nearly so, and colored red, yellow, or brown, or less often green. The color is usually due to oxid of iron, the anhydrous oxid being present in the red, and the hydrated oxid in the yellow and brown varieties. Some kinds contain clay as an impurity, and a red jasper rock (sometimes called jasperite) occurs on a large scale with the iron ores of the Lake Superior region. The finer varieties of jasper admit of a good polish, and are used for vases, snuff-boxes, seals, etc. Banded or striped jasper (also called ribbon-jasper) is a kind having the color in broad stripes, as of red and green. Agate jasper has layers of chalcedony. Egyptian jasper, much used in ancient art, was found near the Nile, in nodules having zones of red, yellow, or brown colors. Porcelain jasper is merely a baked indurated clay, often of a bright-red color.
3. n. An earthenware made of pounded spar.
4. n. Same as jasper-ware.
5. Same as jasperize.

Wiktionary

1. n. UK, colloquial A wasp. (West Country dialects, Somerset County)
2. n. US, slang A person, a guy, especially seen as naïve or simple.
3. n. obsolete Any bright-coloured kind of chalcedony apart from cornelian.
4. n. mineralogy An opaque, impure variety of quartz, of red, yellow, and other dull colors, breaking conchoidally with a smooth surface.
5. n. Jasperware pottery.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Min.) An opaque, impure variety of quartz, of red, yellow, and other dull colors, breaking with a smooth surface. It admits of a high polish, and is used for vases, seals, snuff boxes, etc. When the colors are in stripes or bands, it is called striped jasper or banded jasper. The Egyptian pebble is a brownish yellow jasper.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. an opaque form of quartz; red or yellow or brown or dark green in color; used for ornamentation or as a gemstone