ag·ate

(ăg′ĭt)

1. A fine-grained, fibrous variety of chalcedony with colored bands or irregular clouding.

2. A playing marble made of agate or a glass imitation of it; an aggie.

3. A tool with agate parts, such as a burnisher tipped with agate.

4. Printing A type size, about 5 ¹/₂ points.

[Middle English achate, agaten, from Old French acate, agate, alteration (influenced by Greek agathē, good) of Latin achātēs, from Greek akhātēs.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

agate

(ˈæɡɪt)

1. (Minerals) an impure microcrystalline form of quartz consisting of a variegated, usually banded chalcedony, used as a gemstone and in making pestles and mortars, burnishers, and polishers. Formula: SiO2

2. (Individual Sports, other than specified) a playing marble of this quartz or resembling it

3. (Printing, Lithography & Bookbinding) printing Also called: ruby US and Canadian (formerly) a size of printer's type approximately equal to 5 point

[C16: via French from Latin achātēs, from Greek akhatēs]

agate

(əˈɡeɪt)

adv

dialect Northern English on the way

[C16: a-² + gate³]

Agate

(ˈæɡeɪt)

(Biography) James (Evershed). 1877–1947, British theatre critic; drama critic for The Sunday Times (1923–47) and author of a nine-volume diary Ego (1935–49)

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

ag•ate

(ˈæg ɪt)

n.

1. a variegated chalcedony showing curved, colored bands or other markings.

2. a playing marble made of this substance, or of glass in imitation of it.

3. Print.

a. a 5½-point type.

b. a type size smaller than that used for news text, esp. in classified advertisements.

[1150–1200; « Medieval Latin achātēs < Greek achatēs]

ag·ate

(ăg′ĭt)

A type of very fine-grained quartz found in various colors that are arranged in bands or in cloudy patterns. The bands form when water rich with silica enters empty spaces in rock, after which the silica comes out of solution and forms crystals, gradually filling the spaces from the outside inward. The different colors are the result of various impurities in the water.

The American Heritage® Student Science Dictionary, Second Edition. Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

agate - an impure form of quartz consisting of banded chalcedony; used as a gemstone and for making mortars and pestles

moss agate - an agate resembling moss with brown, black, or green markings

calcedony, chalcedony - a milky or greyish translucent to transparent quartz

Translations

achát

Achat

αχάτης

ágata

ahhaat

agaattiakaatti

agate

agata

agat

агат

agate

[ˈægət] N → ágata f

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

agate

[ˈægət] n → agate f

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

agate

n → Achat m

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

in yon brilliant window-niche How statue-like I me thee stand, The agate lamp within thy hand!

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Huge columns carved out of single masses of marble, and inlaid from top to bottom with a hundred intricate figures wrought in costly verde antique; pulpits of the same rich materials, whose draperies hung down in many a pictured fold, the stony fabric counterfeiting the delicate work of the loom; the grand altar brilliant with polished facings and balustrades of oriental agate, jasper, verde antique, and other precious stones, whose names, even, we seldom hear-- and slabs of priceless lapis lazuli lavished every where as recklessly as if the church had owned a quarry of it.

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Then more beds of different fashion, and an agate vase carved with the figure of a man aiming an arrow at a lion, and finally a costly table, which had once belonged to King Solomon.

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They were agate gray and they looked too big for his face because they had black lashes all round them.

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He hastened his steps, and quickly arrived at the gate of the palace, which was formed of a single agate. The gate swung open to let him through, and he next passed successively three courts, surrounded by deep ditches filled with running water, with birds of brilliant plumage flying about the banks.

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In this northern part of Chile, within the Cordillera, old Indian houses are said to be especially numerous: by digging amongst the ruins, bits of woollen articles, instruments of precious metals, and heads of Indian corn, are not unfrequently discovered: an arrow-head made of agate, and of precisely the same form with those now used in Tierra del Fuego, was given me.

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I'm fear'd you have some ill plans agate, that bring you about folk's houses at this time o' night.

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"When we are apart I always imagine your face as a face of gold, with eyes and teeth of bdellium, or chalcedony, or agate, or any wonderful unknown stones of appropriate colors."

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He was conscious--and the thought brought a gleam of pleasure into his brown agate eyes--that it was through certain words of his, musical words said with musical utterance, that Dorian Gray's soul had turned to this white girl and bowed in worship before her.

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But if some other girl here in the town took a fancy to her brass crucifix, her agate heart or her velvet ribbon, she would make them over to her at once, glad to give happiness, for she lives by generous impulses.

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And south they went, along roads that steadily grew worse, through the dairy country of Langlois and through thick pine forests to Port Orford, where Saxon picked jeweled agates on the beach while Billy caught enormous rockcod.

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I traded for postage-stamps, for minerals, for curios, for birds' eggs, for marbles (I had a more magnificent collection of agates than I have ever seen any boy possess--and the nucleus of the collection was a handful worth at least three dollars, which I had kept as security for twenty cents I loaned to a messenger-boy who was sent to reform school before he could redeem them).

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