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Ivory   /ˈaɪvəri/  /ˈaɪvri/   Listen
noun
Ivory  n.  (pl. ivories)  
1.
The hard, white, opaque, fine-grained substance constituting the tusks of the elephant. It is a variety of dentine, characterized by the minuteness and close arrangement of the tubes, as also by their double flexure. It is used in manufacturing articles of ornament or utility. Note: Ivory is the name commercially given not only to the substance constituting the tusks of the elephant, but also to that of the tusks of the hippopotamus and walrus, the hornlike tusk of the narwhal, etc.
2.
The tusks themselves of the elephant, etc.
3.
Any carving executed in ivory.
4.
pl. Teeth; as, to show one's ivories. (Slang)
Ivory black. See under Black, n.
Ivory gull (Zool.), a white Arctic gull (Larus eburneus).
Ivory nut (Bot.), the nut of a species of palm, the Phytephas macroarpa, often as large as a hen's egg. When young the seed contains a fluid, which gradually hardness into a whitish, close-grained, albuminous substance, resembling the finest ivory in texture and color, whence it is called vegetable ivory. It is wrought into various articles, as buttons, chessmen, etc. The palm is found in New Grenada. A smaller kind is the fruit of the Phytephas microarpa. The nuts are known in commerce as Corosso nuts.
Ivory palm (Bot.), the palm tree which produces ivory nuts.
Ivory shell (Zool.), any species of Eburna, a genus of marine gastropod shells, having a smooth surface, usually white with red or brown spots.
Vegetable ivory, the meat of the ivory nut. See Ivory nut (above).






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Ivory" Quotes from Famous Books



... receive them in one of the pillared verandahs, one that looked out over the river, where there was a single great ivory chair, with a red satin cushion, and a large piece of carpet in front of it, and nothing else. It was the only chair in the palace, probably the only chair in all the Maharajah's State of Chita, and as Sonny Sahib had never seen a chair ...
— The Story of Sonny Sahib • Sara Jeannette Duncan

... man say it would be no surprise to her, if he killed a slave some day, for, that, when transported with passion he did not seem to care what he did. He once broke a large stick over the back of a slave and at another time the ivory butt-end of a long coach whip over the head of another. This last was attacked with epileptic fits some months after, and has ever since been subject to them, and occasionally to ...
— The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus • American Anti-Slavery Society

... to, if we get the new jug," said Anthea; "but we'll pay for you to go, if you'll take the Lamb. And I say, Martha, look here—I'll give you my Liberty box, if you'll go. Look, it's most awfully pretty—all inlaid with real silver and ivory and ebony, like ...
— Five Children and It • E. Nesbit

... professionals at a hundred concerts; and with him, too, was Captain Guzzard, of the Guards, with his tremendous bass voice, which all the world declared to be as fine as Porto's, and who shared the applause of Baroski's school with Mr. Bulger, the dentist of Sackville Street, who neglected his ivory and gold plates for his voice, as every unfortunate individual will do who is bitten by the music mania. Then among the ladies there were a half-score of dubious pale governesses and professionals with turned frocks and lank damp bandeaux of hair under shabby little bonnets; ...
— Men's Wives • William Makepeace Thackeray

... & annulus aureus, the Sword, Diadem, purple Robe, and gold Ring, he had his vasa, vehicula, apparitores, Scipio eburneus, & sella curulis, Kettledrums, [I know the kettledrum is a modern invention; but the vasa militari modo conclamata was something analogous.] Chariots, Pursuivants, ivory staff, and chair ...
— Travels Through France and Italy • Tobias Smollett


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