Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The pearly internal layer of certain mollusk shells, used to make decorative objects. Also called nacre.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The nacreous inner layer of the shell of various bivalve mollusks, as of the pearl-oyster, when hard, silvery, iridescent, or otherwise sufficiently beautiful to have commercial value; nacre. It is the substance of which pearls consist, a pearl being a mass of it instead of a layer. The large oysters of the Indian seas secrete this nacreous layer of sufficient thickness to render their shells available for purposes of trade. The genus Meleagrina furnishes the finest pearls as well as mother-of-pearl. These shells are found in the greatest perfection round the coasts of Ceylon, near Ormuz in the Persian Gulf, and in the Australian seas. Mother-of-pearl is procured from many different shells, univalve as well as bivalve, and is extensively used in the arts, particularly in inlaid work, and in the manufacture of knife-handles, buttons, toys, snuff-boxes, etc.
Wiktionary
- adj. Made from or looking like mother-of-pearl; iridescent or pearly.
- n. The hard pearly inner layer of certain mollusk shells; nacre.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Zoöl.) The hard, iridescent, pearly internal layer of several kinds of shells, esp. of pearl oysters, river mussels, and the abalone shells; nacre. See pearl.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the iridescent internal layer of a mollusk shell
Examples
“Colorful coat buttons on cards, tiny four-holed mother-of-pearl buttons.”
“The line began with mother-of-pearl charm bracelets, which Ms. Bidermann still makes.”
“Photographs by Kurt Wilberding Marco Bicego Jaipur bangle crafted in 18-karat yellow gold with citrine and mother-of-pearl, $890, and Jaipur bangle crafted in 18-karat yellow gold with citrine and blue topaz, $890 each, Saks, 877-551-7257”
“Guitars still get a little adventurous (though less so than in the heyday of 70s metal); accordions still break out a bonanza of mother-of-pearl now and then, as does the occasional drum set.”
“From the kinky locks of one of the naked young men he drew a hand-carved, fine-toothed comb, the lofty back of which was inlaid with mother-of-pearl, which he later sold in Sydney to a curio shop for eight shillings.”
“Mr. Jolly estimates he has sewn 12,000 mother-of-pearl buttons onto a single suit, some of which spell out his title across his back: the Pearly King of Crystal Palace.”
The Wall Street Journal: A Peacemaker Tries to Reunite London's Warring 'Pearlies'
“They are groups of mainly aged "Cockney" Londoners who sew mother-of-pearl buttons on their clothes in lavish designs and sing sentimental pub songs.”
The Wall Street Journal: A Peacemaker Tries to Reunite London's Warring 'Pearlies'
“It was very Wild West, with mother-of-pearl grips and a worn holster.”
“Reality hit when they started looking for a fine cotton fabric and mother-of-pearl buttons.”
The Wall Street Journal: Polo Puzzle: What Goes Into a $155 Price Tag?
“It was small by Susapan standards, twenty six miles on its axis, a bit over seven at its widest diameter, its smooth ovoid surface a mother-of-pearl swirling.”
365 tomorrows » 2009 » August : A New Free Flash Fiction SciFi Story Every Day
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘mother-of-pearl’.
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SCIE - EU nomenclature
All the scientific words found in the official EU nomenclature. For the screening I used Vocabgrabber of the Visual Thesaurus.
silicon, silica, shrimp, shelve, shallot, serine, seedling, septic, secretin, seaweed, screening, Scomber and 1171 more...
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IMCO - EU nomenclature
includes words of the "Prodcom list"
veal, valve, used, yak, wax, wan, teak, vat, vas, strip, use, strap and 4515 more...
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Steampunk
Words used quite often in steampunk
ansible, airship, chymical, valve, clockwork, dirigible, thaumaturgy, copper, bronze, difference engine, gear, rivets and 516 more...
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sealust
sea-maid, arm of the sea, naupathia, seafaring, sea-born, mermaid, mother-of-pearl, maritime, calenture, whale road, euphausiid, Panthalassa and 3 more...
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♥
ambrosia, inamorata, gossamer, lily-white, hummingbird, roucoulement, poppy, daisy, calypso, lunula, lamb, dove and 1526 more...
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thing
apron, lard, clove, camphor, alfalfa, amber, caraway, juniper, kohl, lute, shale, glyph and 142 more...
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Good Words
fenestering, cetic, immanent, quickening, archetypal, shibboleth, soma, wetware, heritable, Apotheosis, halcyon, cellar door and 482 more...
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Words Covered in Faery Dust (M)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
mace, macintosh, madras, magenta, magic 8 ball, magma, mahogany, maiden, mail, mainsail, maize, malachite and 169 more...
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lanklenmot's Words
ineluctable, prelapsarian, bien pensant, prospero, preternatural, gratifying, iconoclast, cineast, persnickety, tumescent, galvanize, pap and 887 more...
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W.C.Fields Lexicon
antithesis, assegai, cognomen, diaphanous, drat!, effulgent, euphonious, fetlock, jabbernowl, metatarsal, moon calf, mother-of-pearl and 10 more...
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A Mother of a List
Figurative 'mother' expressions.
mother-water, mother-liquor, mother-lye, mother-of-vinegar, mother-pearl, mother-of-pearl, mother-queen, motherboard, mothership, motherland, motherlode, motherload and 29 more...
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Violins
scroll, neck, bridge, fingerboard, tailpiece, shoulder rest, chin rest, pegs, strings, body, f-holes, sound post and 29 more...
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the dressing room - jewelry box
crown, gilt, sceptre, circlet, diadem, tiara, alabaster, gold, cat's eye, citrine, zircon, hematite and 47 more...
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Construction Material for the Immaterial
I like concrete metaphors. These are building supplies I've used for poetry.
...All our joys were clotted
with pearls, all our griefs were denied
with stone, all our words...paint, sandalwood, chalk, aluminum, brick, mother-of-pearl, goldleaf, pigment, mineral, terra-cotta, tempera, ash and 73 more...
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M
meringue, mere, mead, marshmallow, may queen, moon, musk, mahogany, mist, murmur, murky, midsummer and 48 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for mother-of-pearl.
treeseed Merriam-Webster Dictionary
noun
Date: circa 1510
: the hard pearly iridescent substance forming the inner layer of a mollusk shell Jan 30, 2008