[f. LIME sb.1 + STONE.] A rock that consists chiefly of carbonate of lime, and yields lime when burnt. (The crystalline variety of limestone is marble.)
1523. Fitzherb., Surv., 6 b. Yet may he laufully … selle … fre stonne, lyme stone, chalke,… or tynne, to his owne vse.
1695. Woodward, Nat. Hist. Earth (1723), 10. Free-stone, Ragg-stone, Lime-stone.
1707. Mortimer, Husb., vi. (1708), 97. Any soft Stone, as Fire-stone, Lime-stone, &c., if broke small, and laid on cold Lands, must be of Advantage to them.
1813. Bakewell, Introd. Geol. (1815), 86. No organic remains are found in the crystalline lime-stone.
b. A species (or † a specimen) of this rock.
1664. Evelyn, Kal. Hort., May (1679), 17. Having before put some rubbish of Lime-stones, pebbles, shells … or the like at the bottom of the Cases, to make the moisture passage.
1742. Lond. & Country Brewer, I. (ed. 4), 57. Others are said to make Use of Lime-stones to fine and preserve the Drink.
1813. Sir H. Davy, Agric. Chem. (1814), 6. By simple chemical tests the nature of a limestone is discovered in a few minutes.
1833. Lyell, Elem. Geol. (1865), 395. One of the limestones of the Middle Oolite.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 774. When the kiln is to be set in action, it is filled with rough limestones.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 118. All limestones from the softest chalk to the hardest marble consists essentially of carbonate of lime.
c. attrib. and Comb., as limestone-cliff, -crag, -gravel, -land, -region, -slab; limestone-encased adj.; limestone-bead (see quot.); limestone-fern (Britten & Holland), -polypody, book-names for Polypodium calcareum.
1793. D. Ure, Hist. Rutherglen, 318–9. The Entrochi.… By workmen in Kilbride they are more commonly called *Limestone-beads.
1880. Haughton, Phys. Geogr., v. 243. The yucca grew on the *limestone cliffs.
1863. Kingsley, Water-Bab., 14. A low cave of rock at the foot of a *limestone crag.
1889. N. S. Shaler, Aspects of Earth, 102. The North Atlantic, where minute *limestone-encased creatures float in the water while they live.
1764. Museum Rust., III. xvii. 75. Others fallow, and manure with a very happy provision they have in the thinly-inhabited and interior parts of the kingdom, called *lime-stone gravel.
1805. R. W. Dickson, Pract. Agric., I. 236. Lime-stone gravel … has been successfully laid upon land in Ireland.
1685. Boyle, Salub. Air, 10. A large tract of *Limestone land was so warm (as they speak) as to dissolve the Snow that fell on it.
1861. Miss Pratt, Flower. Pl., VI. 164. *Limestone Polypody.
1865. Gosse, Land & Sea (1874), 321. A *limestone region is essential to the abundance of these animals.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 774. The several stories are formed of groined arches o, and platforms p, covered over with *limestone slabs.
