Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A fine-grained, fibrous variety of chalcedony with colored bands or irregular clouding.
- noun A playing marble made of agate or a glass imitation of it; an aggie.
- noun A tool with agate parts, such as a burnisher tipped with agate.
- noun Printing A type size, about 5 1/2 points.
from The Century Dictionary.
- On the way; going; agoing; in motion: as, “set him agate again,” Lingua, iii. 6; “set the bells agate,” Cotgrave.
- noun Nautical, the jewel cup in the center of the compass-card, which rests upon the upright pivot in the center of the compass-bowl.
- noun A variety of quartz which is peculiar in consisting of bands or layers of various colors blended together.
- noun A draw-plate used by gold-wire drawers, named from the piece of agate through which the eye is drilled.
- noun In printing, type of a size between pearl and nonpareil, giving about 160 lines to the foot. It is used chiefly in newspapers. In Great Britain it is known as ruby.
- noun This line is printed in agate.
- noun An instrument used by bookbinders for polishing; a burnisher.
- noun A child's playing-marble made of agate, or of glass in imitation of agate.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Min.) A semipellucid, uncrystallized variety of quartz, presenting various tints in the same specimen. Its colors are delicately arranged in stripes or bands, or blended in clouds.
- noun (Print.) A kind of type, larger than pearl and smaller than nonpareil; in England called
ruby . - noun obsolete A diminutive person; so called in allusion to the small figures cut in agate for rings and seals.
- noun A tool used by gold-wire drawers, bookbinders, etc.; -- so called from the agate fixed in it for burnishing.
- adverb obsolete On the way; agoing
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adverb obsolete On the way; agoing; as, to be agate; to set the bells agate.
- noun countable, uncountable, mineralogy A semi-
pellucid , uncrystallized variety of quartz, presenting various tints in the same specimen, with colors delicately arranged in stripes or bands, or blended in clouds. - noun uncountable, printing A kind of type, larger than pearl and smaller than nonpareil; in England called ruby.
- noun countable, obsolete A diminutive person; so called in allusion to the small figures cut in agate for rings and seals.
- noun countable A tool used by gold-wire drawers, bookbinders, etc.;—so called from the agate fixed in it for burnishing.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun an impure form of quartz consisting of banded chalcedony; used as a gemstone and for making mortars and pestles
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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I'd like to offer you black agate from a mine we own.
Black agate for sale 2008
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Charlie and Chester [from DOOR WAY] are caught in agate for the rest of us to see and remember the quiet beauty of their lives, for people long after we have “walked into our own shadows” as you put it.
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Charlie and Chester [from DOOR WAY] are caught in agate for the rest of us to see and remember the quiet beauty of their lives, for people long after we have “walked into our own shadows” as you put it.
July « 2008 « poetry dispatch & other notes from the underground 2008
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Charlie and Chester [from DOOR WAY] are caught in agate for the rest of us to see and remember the quiet beauty of their lives, for people long after we have “walked into our own shadows” as you put it.
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In this nurturing environment Bruce Holmes began organizing what was called the agate project.
Freedom of the Skies 2001
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In this nurturing environment Bruce Holmes began organizing what was called the agate project.
Freedom of the Skies 2001
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At present agate and onyx differ only in the manner in which the stone is cut; if it is so cut as to show the layers of colour, it is called agate; if cut parallel to the lines, onyx.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 14: Simony-Tournon 1840-1916 1913
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For example, when Baudelaire first used the word agate in an original and evocative metaphor for cat's eyes (Et laisse-moi plonger dans tes beaux yeux,/
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Amongst that collection, none pleased so well, as the apotheosis of Germanicus, on a large agate, which is one of the most delicate pieces of the kind that I remember to have seen.
Letters of the Right Honourable Lady M--y W--y M--e Montague, Lady Mary W 1724
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We had a guy who handled "agate," the tiny type that takes up a lot of space in sports sections.
Archive 2009-07-01 tgilli 2009
asativum commented on the word agate
In newspaperish, also very small type, such as is used for sports-page box scores and the like.
(Can I just remark upon how much I like the phrase "such as is"? Very satisfying to say. One of the few uses of "such as" that doesn't make my skin crawl.)
June 13, 2008
knitandpurl commented on the word agate
"It is the tragedy of other people that they are merely showcases for the very perishable collections of one's own mind. For this very reason one bases upon them projects which have all the fervour of thought; but thought languishes and memory decays: the day would come when I would readily admit the first comer to Albertine's room, as I had without the slightest regret given Albertine the agate marble or other gifts that I had received from Gilberte."
--The Captive & The Fugitive by Marcel Proust, translated by C.K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin, revised by D.J. Enright, pp 751-752 of the Modern Library paperback edition
February 18, 2010
ruzuzu commented on the word agate
Oh, cool. I knew that agate is a printing term having to do with type size, but the CD&C also tells us that agates are used (especially by bookbinders) as burnishers. Is that where the printing term came from?
Also, I like the bit about Shakespeare: "In Shakspere agate is a symbol of littleness or smallness, from the little figures cut in these stones when set in rings."
January 30, 2012