Whinstone
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A stone used to crush whin for use as winter feed for cattle. uncountable, usually
- 2 any of various hard colored rocks (especially rocks consisting of chert or basalt) wordnet
- 3 Any hard dark-coloured rock. uncountable, usually
"‘A rough fellow, rather, Mrs. Dean. Is not that his character?‘ ‘Rough as a saw-edge, and hard as whinstone! The less you meddle with him the better.’"
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"‘A rough fellow, rather, Mrs. Dean. Is not that his character?‘ ‘Rough as a saw-edge, and hard as whinstone! The less you meddle with him the better.’"
Etymology
Possibly corrupted from quern stone, i.e. stone suitable for making querns; or else, from whin + stone.
More for "whinstone"
Editorial Guides For "whinstone"
Professional Email Tone: Sound Clear, Polite, and Decisive
Practical phrase swaps to improve clarity and reduce friction in workplace emails.
De-escalation Language for Difficult Conversations
Use wording that lowers tension while preserving boundaries and forward progress.
Brand Voice Consistency: Keep Tone Unified Across Pages
Practical framework to keep product, marketing, and support copy aligned.
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.