Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A fine, compact, usually white claylike mineral of hydrous magnesium silicate, H4Mg2Si3O10, found in the Mediterranean area and used in fashioning tobacco pipes and as a building stone.
- noun A tobacco pipe with a bowl made of this mineral.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A hydrated silicate of magnesium, occurring in fine white clay-like masses, which when dry will float on water; sepiolite.
- noun A pipe made from this substance.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Min.) A fine white claylike mineral, soft, and light enough when in dry masses to float in water. It is a hydrous silicate of magnesia, and is obtained chiefly in Asia Minor. It is manufacturd into tobacco pipes, cigar holders, etc. Also called
sepiolite . - noun A tobacco pipe made of this mineral; a meerschaum pipe.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun uncountable A soft white
mineral , chiefly used for smoking-pipes and cigar holders. - noun countable A smoking-
pipe made from meerschaum.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a pipe having a bowl made of meerschaum
- noun a white clayey mineral
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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At length removing carefully his meerschaum from the right to the left corner of his mouth, he condescended to speak.
Archive 2008-12-01 2008
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For, your meerschaum is a fragile thing, and eminently frangible.
Tobacco; Its History, Varieties, Culture, Manufacture and Commerce E. R. Billings
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To colour a meerschaum was the ambition of smokers, swearing was considered neither low nor vulgar, and snuffing was fashionable.
Fifty Years of Railway Life in England Scotland and Ireland Tatlow, Joseph 1920
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A small pipe -- I think the Germans call meerschaum -- I could not despise, nor a great bundle of tobacco, which I thrust into the inside pouch of the cloak.
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Jimmy led them, his hands deep in his pockets, puffing white steam-clouds at regular intervals from his "meerschaum" pipe.
Blazed Trail Stories and Stories of the Wild Life Stewart Edward White 1909
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Generally he sat clasping one knee, staring directly in front of him, and puffing regularly on a "meerschaum" pipe he had earned by saving the tags of Spearhead tobacco.
Blazed Trail Stories and Stories of the Wild Life Stewart Edward White 1909
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Well, colonel, replace the meerschaum in your broom-moustache face and I'll tell you:
The Face of Green? Dan Neil 2011
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I suppose you only read Kant in the original German wearing lederhosen and stuffing high grade skunk into your meerschaum.
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The New Yorker essayist George Plimpton also remembered that invasion of the Harlem peacocks in their enormous purple Cadillacs: "I'd never seen crowds as fancy, especially the men – felt hatbands and feathered capes, and the stilted shoes, the heels like polished ebony, and many smoking stuff in odd meerschaum pipes."
The night Muhammad Ali's legend was reborn – and the party that followed Frank Keating 2010
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German troops each received a large meerschaum pipe, and fine cigars for the officers.
Steven and Michael Meloan: Contagious Transcendence--The Christmas Truce of 1914 Steven 2010
dailyword commented on the word meerschaum
Holmes had a pipe made out of this material.
August 18, 2012
ry commented on the word meerschaum
also kiefekil
January 17, 2013