Lexic.us

Definition of Ivory

1. Noun. A hard smooth ivory colored dentine that makes up most of the tusks of elephants and walruses.

Definition of Ivory

1. n. The hard, white, opaque, fine-grained substance constituting the tusks of the elephant. It is a variety of dentine, characterized by the minuteness and close arrangement of the tubes, as also by their double flexure. It is used in manufacturing articles of ornament or utility.

Definition of Ivory

1. Noun. The hard white form of dentine which forms the tusks of elephants, walruses and other animals. ¹

2. Noun. A creamy white colour, the colour of ivory. ¹

3. Noun. Something made from or resembling ivory. ¹

4. Noun. (context: collective singular or in plural) The teeth. ¹

5. Noun. (context: collective singular or in plural) The keys of a piano. ¹

6. Noun. (slang) A white person ¹

7. Adjective. Made of ivory. ¹

8. Adjective. Resembling or having the colour of ivory. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Ivory

1. a hard white substance found in elephant tusks [n -RIES]

Medical Definition of Ivory

1. 1. The hard, white, opaque, fine-grained substance constituting the tusks of the elephant. It is a variety of dentine, characterised by the minuteness and close arrangement of the tubes, as also by their double flexure. It is used in manufacturing articles of ornament or utility. Ivory is the name commercially given not only to the substance constituting the tusks of the elephant, but also to that of the tusks of the hippopotamus and walrus, the hornlike tusk of the narwhal, etc. 2. The tusks themselves of the elephant, etc. Ivory gull, a white Arctic gull (Larus eburneus). Ivory nut, any species of Eburna, a genus of marine gastropod shells, having a smooth surface, usually white with red or brown spots. Vegetable ivory, the meat of the ivory nut. Origin: OE. Ivori, F. Ivoire, fr. L. Eboreus made of ivory, fr. Ebur, eboris, ivory, cf. Skr. Ibha elephant. Cf. Eburnean. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Ivory

Literary usage of Ivory

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Dictionary of National Biography by LESLIE. STEPHEN (1892)
"In 1809 ivory read his first paper to the Royal Society, ... ivory was elected member of the Royal Academy of Sciences of France, the Royal Academy of ..."

2. United States Supreme Court Reports by Lawyers Co-operative Publishing Company, United States Supreme Court (1889)
"Those persons scraped the lower surface of the ivory, to make it adhere to a piece of wood to which it wa* afterwards glued. ..."

3. A Dictionary of the Bible: Comprising Its Antiquities, Biography, Geography by William Smith, John Mee Fuller (1893)
"In the time of Thothmes III. ivory was imported iu considerable quantities into Egypt, either ' in boats laden with ivory and ebony ' from Ethiopia, ..."

4. The Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the by Charles George Herbermann (1913)
"Another use the early Christians found for ivory was the making of cylindrical pyxes from a cross section of the elephant tusk; upon the covers, ..."

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