whetstone

4 definitions found

whetstone - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Whetstone \Whet"stone`\, n. [AS. hwetst[=a]n.]
     A piece of stone, natural or artificial, used for whetting,
     or sharpening, edge tools.
     [1913 Webster]
  
           The dullness of the fools is the whetstone of the wits.
                                                    --Shak.
     [1913 Webster]
  
           Diligence is to the understanding as the whetstone to
           the razor.                               --South.
     [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: Some whetstones are used dry, others are moistened with
           water, or lubricated with oil.
           [1913 Webster]
  
     To give the whetstone, to give a premium for extravagance
        in falsehood. [Obs.]
        [1913 Webster]

whetstone - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  whetstone
      n 1: a flat stone for sharpening edged tools or knives

whetstone - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  Whetstone
  
     <benchmark> The first major synthetic benchmark program,
     intended to be representative for numerical (floating-point
     intensive) programming.  It is based on statistics gathered by
     Brian Wichmann at the National Physical Laboratory in
     England, using an Algol 60 compiler which translated Algol
     into instructions for the imaginary Whetstone machine.  The
     compilation system was named after the small town of Whetstone
     outside the City of Leicester, England, where it was designed.
  
     The later dhrystone benchmark was a pun on Whetstone.
  
     Source code: C (ftp://netlib.att.com/netlib/benchmark/whetstonec.Z)
     , single precision Fortran (ftp://netlib.att.com:/netlib/benchmark/whetstones.Z)
         ,
     double precision Fortran (ftp://netlib.att.com:/netlib/benchmark/whetstoned.Z)
     .
  
     ["A Synthetic Benchmark", H.J. Curnow and B.A. Wichmann, The
     Computer Journal, 19,1 (1976), pp. 43-49].
  
     (1994-11-14)
  

whetstone - U.S. Gazetteer (1990) :

  Whetstone, AZ (CDP, FIPS 82155)
    Location: 31.70171 N, 110.34075 W
    Population (1990): 1289 (593 housing units)
    Area: 32.6 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)