whet·stone

(wĕt′stōn′, hwĕt′-)

A hard, fine-grained stone for honing tools. Also called snakestone.

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.

whetstone

(ˈwɛtˌstəʊn)

1. (General Engineering) a stone used for sharpening edged tools, knives, etc

2. (General Engineering) something that sharpens

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

whet•stone

(ˈʰwɛtˌstoʊn, ˈwɛt-)

n.

a stone for sharpening cutlery or tools by friction.

[before 900]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

whetstone - a flat stone for sharpening edged tools or knives

hone - a whetstone made of fine gritstone; used for sharpening razors

oilstone - a whetstone for use with oil

stone - building material consisting of a piece of rock hewn in a definite shape for a special purpose; "he wanted a special stone to mark the site"

Translations

حَجَر شَحْذ

slibesten

Schleifstein Wetzstein

hiomakivi

brus

brÿni

cote mola ad umido

bryne

gresie

оселок точило

osla

brus

biley taşı

磨刀石

whetstone

[ˈwetstəʊn] N → piedra f de amolar, afiladera 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

whetstone

[ˈ^hwɛtstəʊn] n → meule f

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

whetstone

n → Wetzstein m

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

whetstone

[ˈwɛtˌstəʊn] n → cote f

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

whet

(wet) – past tense, past participle ˈwhetted – verb

1. to sharpen (a tool) by rubbing it on a grindstone or whetstone.

2. to make (one's appetite) keen.

ˈwhetstone noun

a stone for sharpening the blades of knives etc.

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

Likhachev got up, rummaged in his pack, and soon Petya heard the warlike sound of steel on whetstone. He climbed onto the wagon and sat on its edge.

"Ozheg-zheg, Ozheg-zheg..." hissed the saber against the whetstone, and suddenly Petya heard an harmonious orchestra playing some unknown, sweetly solemn hymn.

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The same advantages may be drawn from these chapters, in which the critic will be always sure of meeting with something that may serve as a whetstone to his noble spirit; so that he may fall with a more hungry appetite for censure on the history itself.

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Nor did the whetstone which the harpooneers carried in their pockets, for their lances and other weapons; and with which whetstones, at dinner, they would ostentatiously sharpen their knives; that grating sound did not at all tend to tranquillize poor Dough-Boy.

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I dropped pap's whetstone there too, so as to look like it had been done by accident.

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Alleyne, on the other hand, must trust for his defence to his quick eye and active foot--for his sword, though keen as a whetstone could make it, was of a light and graceful build with a narrow, sloping pommel and a tapering steel.

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A gay and pleasant sound is the whetting of the scythe in the mornings of June, yet what is more lonesome and sad than the sound of a whetstone or mower's rifle when it is too late in the season to make hay?

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Several pieces of the fossil wood were selected by the men to serve as whetstones.

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The mowers from all sides, brought closer together in the short row, kept urging one another on to the sound of jingling dipper and clanging scythes, and the hiss of the whetstones sharpening them, and good-humored shouts.

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Sandia's new software, Whetstone, is designed to make artificial intelligence algorithms more efficient, enabling them on smaller, less power-hungry hardware.

Sandia's Power Play on Neural Networking

Neither stone nor whet is related to hone, yet hone as a noun means whetstone and comes from a word that means stone (OE han) and from an earlier word that means whetstone (Skt.sana)!

MORE ETYMOLOGICAL CURIOSITIES