Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A hard, smooth, yellowish-white substance composed primarily of dentin that forms the tusks of the elephant.
  • noun A similar substance forming the tusks or teeth of certain other mammals, such as the walrus.
  • noun A tusk, especially an elephant's tusk.
  • noun An article made of ivory.
  • noun A substance resembling ivory.
  • noun A pale or grayish yellow to yellowish white.
  • noun Music Piano keys.
  • noun Games Dice.
  • noun Slang The teeth.
  • adjective Composed or constructed of ivory.
  • adjective Of a pale or grayish yellow to yellowish white.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In mathematics, one of two points on each of two confocal ellipsoids, such that, if the two ellipsoids be referred to their principal axes, the coördinates are in the same proportions as each pair to the axes of the two ellipsoids having the same direction.
  • noun The hard substance, not unlike bone, of which the teeth of most mammals chiefly consist; specifically, a kind of dentine valuable for industrial purposes, as that derived from the tusks of the elephant, hippopotamus, walrus, narwhal, and some other animals.
  • noun An object made of ivory.
  • noun plural Teeth.
  • Consisting or made of ivory; resembling ivory in color or texture: as, the gown was made of ivory satin.
  • noun A dialectal form of ivy, simulating ivory.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The hard, white, opaque, fine-grained substance constituting the tusks of the elephant. It is a variety of dentine, characterized by the minuteness and close arrangement of the tubes, as also by their double flexure. It is used in manufacturing articles of ornament or utility.
  • noun The tusks themselves of the elephant, etc.
  • noun Any carving executed in ivory.
  • noun Slang Teeth.
  • noun See under Black, n.
  • noun (Zoöl.) a white Arctic gull (Larus eburneus).
  • noun (Bot.) the nut of a species of palm, the Phytephas macroarpa, often as large as a hen's egg. When young the seed contains a fluid, which gradually hardness into a whitish, close-grained, albuminous substance, resembling the finest ivory in texture and color, whence it is called vegetable ivory. It is wrought into various articles, as buttons, chessmen, etc. The palm is found in New Grenada. A smaller kind is the fruit of the Phytephas microarpa. The nuts are known in commerce as Corosso nuts.
  • noun (Bot.) the palm tree which produces ivory nuts.
  • noun (Zoöl.) any species of Eburna, a genus of marine gastropod shells, having a smooth surface, usually white with red or brown spots.
  • noun the meat of the ivory nut. See Ivory nut (above).

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun uncountable The hard white form of dentine which forms the tusks of elephants, walruses and other animals.
  • noun A creamy white colour, the colour of ivory.
  • noun Something made from or resembling ivory.
  • noun The teeth.
  • noun The keys of a piano.
  • noun slang A white person.
  • adjective Made of ivory.
  • adjective Resembling or having the colour of ivory.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a shade of white the color of bleached bones
  • noun a hard smooth ivory colored dentine that makes up most of the tusks of elephants and walruses

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

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

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English ivorie, from Anglo-Norman ivurie, from Latin eboreus ("in or of ivory") adjective of ebur ("ivory") (genitive eboris), from Coptic ebou ("elephant") , from Egyptian 𓍋𓃀𓅱𓌟 (ȝbw).

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Examples

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  • The Horseman

    I heard a horseman

    Ride over the hill;

    The moon shone clear,

    The night was still;

    His helm was silver,

    And pale was he;

    And the horse he rode

    Was of ivory.

    _Walter De la Mare

    February 23, 2008