whetstone

From Middle English whestone, whetston, whetesston, from Old English hwetstān, from Proto-West Germanic *hwattjastain (“whetstone”). Equivalent to whet (“to sharpen”) +‎ stone.

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈwɛtˌstoʊn/, [ˈwɛʔˌstoʊn]
  • (US, without the wine–whine merger) IPA^(key): /ˈʍɛtˌstoʊn/, [ˈʍɛʔˌstoʊn]
• (UK) IPA^(key): /wɛtstəʊn/

  • Audio (US, wine–whine merger):

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  • Audio (US, without the wine–whine merger):

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whetstone (plural whetstones)

1. A sharpening stone; a hard stone or piece of synthetically bonded hard minerals that has been formed with at least one flat surface, used to sharpen or hone an edged tool.

   Synonym: honestone

   Hypernym: stone

   Coordinate terms: holystone; grindstone; grinding wheel

   • c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 186, column 2, line 192:

     […] for alwaies the dulneſſe of the foole, is the whetstone of the wits.

   • 1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, Jacob’s Room, Richmond, London: […] Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished London: The Hogarth Press, 1960, →OCLC:

     It was as if a stone were ground to dust; as if white sparks flew from a livid whetstone, which was his spine; as if the switchback railway, having swooped to the depths, fell, fell, fell.

2. (figurative) A stimulant.
3. (computing) Alternative letter-case form of Whetstone (“benchmark”).

whetstone (third-person singular simple present whetstones, present participle whetstoning, simple past and past participle whetstoned)

1. (transitive) To sharpen with a whetstone.

   Synonym: stone (verb) (ellipsis)

   Coordinate terms: holystone (verb); grind (verb)

   Near-synonym: hone (verb)