ivory shell

1 definition found

ivory shell - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Ivory \I"vo*ry\ ([imac]"v[-o]*r[y^]), n.; pl. Ivories. [OE.
     ivori, F. ivoire, fr. L. eboreus made of ivory, fr. ebur,
     eboris, ivory, cf. Skr. ibha elephant. Cf. Eburnean.]
     [1913 Webster]
     1. 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.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: 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.
           [1913 Webster]
  
     2. The tusks themselves of the elephant, etc.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. Any carving executed in ivory. --Mollett.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     4. pl. Teeth; as, to show one's ivories. [Slang]
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     Ivory black. See under Black, n.
  
     Ivory gull (Zool.), a white Arctic gull (Larus eburneus).
        
  
     Ivory nut (Bot.), the nut of a species of palm, the
        Phytephas macroarpa, often as large as a hen's egg. When
        young the seed contains a fluid, which gradually hardness
        into a whitish, close-grained, albuminous substance,
        resembling the finest ivory in texture and color, whence
        it is called vegetable ivory. It is wrought into various
        articles, as buttons, chessmen, etc. The palm is found in
        New Grenada. A smaller kind is the fruit of the Phytephas  microarpa
        . The nuts are known in commerce as Corosso
        nuts.
  
     Ivory palm (Bot.), the palm tree which produces ivory nuts.
        
  
     Ivory shell (Zool.), 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. See Ivory nut
        (above).
        [1913 Webster] ivorybill