alabaster
a finely granular variety of gypsum, often white and translucent, used for ornamental objects or work, such as lamp bases, figurines, etc.
Also called Oriental alabaster. a variety of calcite, often banded, used or sold as alabaster.
made of alabaster: an alabaster column.
resembling alabaster; smooth and white: her alabaster throat.
Origin of alabaster
1Words Nearby alabaster
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use alabaster in a sentence
See also the vignette on title page, copied from an alabaster slab in the Collegio Romano, originally from the Catacombs.
The Catacombs of Rome | William Henry WithrowThis day Mrs. Russell did give my wife a very fine St. George, in alabaster, which will set out my wife's closett mightily.
Diary of Samuel Pepys, Complete | Samuel PepysRound the chapel, known as the Dean's Chapel, there was a fine copper railing decorated with small alabaster figures.
Ypres and the Battles of Ypres | UnknownThe form stretched its lovely arms, white as alabaster, and presently the hands rubbed a pair of sleepy eyes.
The Adventures of Kathlyn | Harold MacGrathAn elegant monument of alabaster, with a bust of Pepys, taken from his portrait in the National Gallery, was unveiled in 1884.
Milton's England | Lucia Ames Mead
British Dictionary definitions for alabaster
/ (ˈæləˌbɑːstə, -ˌbæstə) /
a fine-grained usually white, opaque, or translucent variety of gypsum used for statues, vases, etc
a variety of hard semitranslucent calcite, often banded like marble
of or resembling alabaster
Origin of alabaster
1Derived forms of alabaster
- alabastrine, adjective
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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