Definitions

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

  • noun A stone, such as limestone, that is soft enough to be cut easily without shattering or splitting.
  • noun A fruit, especially a peach, that has a stone that does not adhere to the pulp.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Any species of stone composed of sand or grit, as the brownstone or brown sandstone of the eastern United States, much used in building: so called because it is easily quarried.
  • noun A freestone peach: distinguished from clingstone. See II.
  • Having, as a fruit, a stone from which the flesh of the fruit separates readily and cleanly, as distinguished from the quality of having a stone to which the flesh clings or adheres firmly: as, a freestone peach.

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

  • noun A stone composed of sand or grit; -- so called because it is easily cut or wrought.
  • adjective Having the flesh readily separating from the stone, as in certain kinds of peaches.

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

  • noun A type of stone that is composed of small particles and easily shaped, such as sandstone or limestone.
  • noun A stone fruit having a stone (pit) that is relatively free of the flesh.

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

  • noun fruit (especially peach) whose flesh does not adhere to the pit

Etymologies

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

[Middle English freston, translation of Old French franche pere, high-grade stone : franche, high-grade, feminine of franc, noble, freeborn + pere, stone.]

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word freestone.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • In castle architecture, stone which is easily cut and molded, such as fine-grained limestone or sandstone.

    August 25, 2008

  • "And true it is that he did many of these things; but had he done nothing more I should have left him to have recorded his own merit on some fair freestone over the door of that hospital."

    - Henry Fielding, 'The History of Tom Jones'.

    September 8, 2009

  • "I saw her hand: she has a leathern hand, a freestone-color'd hand; I verily did think that her old gloves were on, but 'twas her hands;" Shakespeare, As You Like It, 1599.

    December 5, 2012