marble

mar·ble   (mär'bəl)    n.   A metamorphic rock formed by alteration of limestone or dolomite, often irregularly colored by impurities, and used especially in architecture and sculpture. A piece of this rock. A sculpture made from this rock. A small hard ball, usually of glass, used in children's games. marbles (used with a sing. verb) Any of various games played with marbles. Something resembling or suggesting metamorphic rock, as in being very hard, smooth, or cold: a heart of marble; a brow of marble. Games A small hard ball, usually of glass, used in children's games. marbles (used with a sing. verb) Any of various games played with marbles. marbles (used with a sing. verb) Slang Common sense; sanity: completely lost his marbles after the stock market crash. Marbling. tr.v.   mar·bled, mar·bling, mar·bles To mottle and streak (paper, for example) with colors and veins in imitation of marble. adj.   Composed of metamorphic rock: a marble hearth. Resembling metamorphic rock in consistency, texture, venation, color, or coldness. [Middle English, from Old French marbre, from Latin marmor, from Greek marmaros.] mar'bly adj.

Marble

Mar"ble\, n. [OE. marbel, marbre, F. marbre, L. marmor, fr. Gr. ?, fr. ? to sparkle, flash. Cf. Marmoreal.]

1. A massive, compact limestone; a variety of calcite, capable of being polished and used for architectural and ornamental purposes. The color varies from white to black, being sometimes yellow, red, and green, and frequently beautifully veined or clouded. The name is also given to other rocks of like use and appearance, as serpentine or verd antique marble, and less properly to polished porphyry, granite, etc.

Note:

Breccia marble consists of limestone fragments cemented together.

Ruin marble, when polished, shows forms resembling ruins, due to disseminated iron oxide.

Shell marble contains fossil shells.

Statuary marble is a pure, white, fine-grained kind, including Parian (from Paros) and Carrara marble. If coarsely granular it is called saccharoidal.

2. A thing made of, or resembling, marble, as a work of art, or record, in marble; or, in the plural, a collection of such works; as, the Arundel or Arundelian marbles; the Elgin marbles.

3. A little ball of marble, or of some other hard substance, used as a plaything by children; or, in the plural, a child's game played with marbles.

Note: Marble is also much used in self-explaining compounds; when used figuratively in compounds it commonly means, hard, cold, destitute of compassion or feeling; as, marble-breasted, marble-faced, marble-hearted.

marble 

marble   (mär'bəl)  Pronunciation Key  A metamorphic rock consisting primarily of calcite and dolomite. Marble is formed by the metamorphism of limestone. Although it is usually white to gray in color, it often has irregularly colored marks due to the presence of impurities such as silica and clay. Marble is used especially in sculpture and as a building material.

Marble

as a mineral, consists of carbonate of lime, its texture varying from the highly crystalline to the compact. In Esther 1:6 there are four Hebrew words which are rendered marble:, (1.) Shesh, "pillars of marble." But this word probably designates dark-blue limestone rather than marble. (2.) Dar, some regard as Parian marble. It is here rendered "white marble." But nothing is certainly known of it. (3.) Bahat, "red marble," probably the verd-antique or half-porphyry of Egypt. (4.) Sohareth, "black marble," probably some spotted variety of marble. "The marble pillars and tesserae of various colours of the palace at Susa came doubtless from Persia itself, where marble of various colours is found, especially in the province of Hamadan Susiana." The marble of Solomon's architectural works may have been limestone from near Jerusalem, or from Lebanon, or possibly white marble from Arabia. Herod employed Parian marble in the temple, and marble columns still exist in great abundance at Jerusalem.

marble

see have all one's buttons (marbles).