Meerschaum
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A soft white mineral, chiefly used for smoking-pipes and cigar holders. uncountable
"He gazed around until on the lid of a spinet he spotted a promising collection of bottles, gin, whiskey, vermouth and sherry, mixed with violin bows, a flute, a toppling pile of books, six volumes of Grove's Dictionary mingled with paperback thrillers, a guitar without any strings, a pair of binoculars, a meerschaum pipe and a jar half-full of wasps and apricot jam."
- 2 a pipe having a bowl made of meerschaum wordnet
- 3 A smoking-pipe made from meerschaum. countable
"The sale of part of his property cleared the rest. A large portion of his income was put aside to accumulate. Horses, pictures, wines, bijouterie, German meerschaum, and Turkish hookahs, were alike brought to the hammer."
- 4 a white clayey mineral wordnet
Example
More examples"This pipe is carved from meerschaum."
Etymology
Borrowed from German Meerschaum (literally “sea foam”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.