porcelain

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“
She brought out cups and saucers of thin Japanese porcelain, some sugar, a loaf and butter, a box of biscuits.

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Definitions (127)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun A hard, white, translucent ceramic made by firing a pure clay and then glazing it with variously colored fusible materials; china.
  2. noun An object made of this substance.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (122)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

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Examples (50)

  • Carving photographs into thin porcelain, then lighted from behind to create a dramatic effect. —  Amazon Online News and Classifieds
  • Visitors can also see furniture, porcelain, and costumes that were adorned in the past. —  Find Free Articles - ArticlesBase
  • You will not see this level of detail with porcelain which is why I prefer fine bone china. —  Dream Mom
  • These two works recall the porcelain and golden art celebrated everywhere in Versailles, but also its sexual qualities and its magnified freedom. —  GalliaWatch
  • She has high hopes for the porcelain-painting: she feels from the "beginning" that it means for her the ultimate possibility of put in order her daughters 'and her own life. —  Photographers
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Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. French porcelaine, cowry shell, porcelain, from Old French, from Old Italian porcellana, from feminine of porcellano, of a young sow (from the shell's resemblance to a pig's back), from porcella, young sow, diminutive of porca, sow, from Latin, feminine of porcus, pig; see porko- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Formerly also porcellan, poreelane, also irreg. purslaine, purslane, purslen (by confusion with purslane, which was also written porcelain); = Dutch porselein = German porzellan, porcellan = Danish porcellæn = Swedish porslin, from Old French porcellaine, pourcelaine, porchelaine, porcelaine, porcelain, china, chinaware, also the purple-fish, the Venus-shell, French porcelaine, porcelain, china, cowry, sea-snail, = Spanish porcelana = Portuguese porcellana, porcelana, porcelain, from Italian porcellana, porcelain (so called because its finely polished surface was compared with that of the Venus-shell), also the purple-fish, the Venus-shell, so called because the curved shape of the upper surface resembles the curve of a pig's back, from porcella, a little pig, a pig, diminutive of porco, masculine, porca, feminine, a hog, pig: see pork.
 

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/ˈpɔrslən/
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