Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A small calcareous body, the operculum of small Turbinidæ, flat on one side and convex on the other, used for removing substances from between the eyelid and the eyeball.

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

  • noun A small, lenticular, calcareous body, esp. an operculum of a small marine shell of the family Turbinidæ, used to remove a foreign substance from the eye. It is put into the inner corner of the eye under the lid, and allowed to work its way out at the outer corner, bringing with it the substance.
  • noun (Min.) Eye agate. See under Eye.

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

  • noun A small, lenticular, calcareous body, especially an operculum of a small shell of the family Tubinidae, used to remove a foreign substance from the eye.
  • noun mineralogy Eye agate.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

eye +‎ stone

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Examples

  • He had never in fact seen one quite like her, with that intriguing horn spiraling from her head, just where an Aridimi priest's eyestone would be.

    Acorna's Rebels McCaffrey, Anne 2003

  • Although I was fourteen, that was the first time I had ever heard of an eyestone; from what Mrs. Wilbur had said about it, I supposed that it was something very mysterious.

    A Busy Year at the Old Squire's 1887

  • I recalled my wits sufficiently to ask whether he had an eyestone, and if he had, whether he would lend it to us.

    A Busy Year at the Old Squire's 1887

  • Whereupon in the same soft voice he told me that he had the day before lent his eyestone to a man who lived a mile or more from the mills.

    A Busy Year at the Old Squire's 1887

  • But after all, I am unable to report definitely as to the efficacy of the eyestone, for shortly after five o'clock, when the stone had been in

    A Busy Year at the Old Squire's 1887

  • When he examined Halstead's eye, he found the eyestone near the outer canthus, and near it the irritating bit of wheat beard.

    A Busy Year at the Old Squire's 1887

  • Whether or not the eyestone had started the piece of wheat beard moving toward the outer corner of the eye was doubtful; but Doctor Green said, laughingly, that we could give the good old panacea the benefit of the doubt.

    A Busy Year at the Old Squire's 1887

  • Mills, four miles away, had an eyestone that he would lend to any one for ten cents.

    A Busy Year at the Old Squire's 1887

  • Usually you put the eyestone under the eyelid at the inner canthus of the eye, and the automatic action of the eye moves it slowly over the eyeball; thus it is likely to carry along with it any foreign body that has accidentally lodged in the eye.

    A Busy Year at the Old Squire's 1887

  • Meanwhile a neighbor, Mrs. Wilbur, suggested putting an eyestone into

    A Busy Year at the Old Squire's 1887

Comments

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  • From The Free Dictionary: "A small, lenticular, calcareous body, esp. an operculum of a small marine shell of the family Turbinidæ, used to remove a foreign substance from the eye. It is put into the inner corner of the eye under the lid, and allowed to work its way out at the outer corner, bringing with it the substance."

    June 15, 2010