Stone v.

Forms: see prec.; also (Sc. and north.) 4 stain, 6 staan, staen. [Early ME. stānen, f. stān STONE sb. Cf. STEEN v.]

  1.  trans. To throw stones at, pelt with stones; esp. to put to death by pelting with stones.

c. 1200.  Ormin, 1968. Ȝho munnde affterr þe laȝheboc To dæþe ben istanedd.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 19456. Þar-for on steuen all þai stert, Þai draf him vte o tun allan, And þai demed him to stain.

1382.  Wyclif, Exod. xvii. 4. What shal Y do to this puple? ȝit a litil while, and it shal stonen me.

c. 1400.  Maundev. (Roxb.), x. 40. Þe kirke of saynt Steuen, whare he was staned to deed.

c. 1450.  Mirour Saluacioun (Roxb.), 142. Ysay prophete was sawen and stonyd was Jeremye.

1535.  Coverdale, Matt. xxi. 35. The huszbandmen caught his seruauntes: one they bett,… the thirde they stoned.

1596.  Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot., I. 123. Gif a Sou eit his ȝoung, stane him [L. lapidibus obruito], and eit nocht his flesche.

1611.  Shaks., Wint. T., IV. iv. 807. Some say hee shall be ston’d: but that death is too soft for him (say I).

1781.  Gibbon, Decl. & F., xxx. II. 149. Cowards were stoned to death.

1843.  Lytton, Last Bar., I. vi. Were he to walk the streets, they would stone him.

1909.  Blackw. Mag., Sept., 367/2. Small Henry splashed about in the shallows stoning the little fishes.

  † 2.  To turn into stone, or make hard like stone; to petrify. (Chiefly fig.) Obs.

1604.  Shaks., Oth., V. ii. 63. O periur’d woman, thou do’st stone my heart.

1634.  Habington, Castara (Arb.), 38. Till I shall see That heart so ston’d and frozen, thaw’d in thee.

1853.  Miss E. S. Sheppard, Ch. Auchester, II. 64. When André looked up, he … seemed almost stoned with surprise.

  3.  To furnish or fit with stones; to pave, or build up, with stone or stones. (See also quot. 1877.)

1600.  Weakest goeth to Wall, C 3. Were your streets through ston’d with Dyamonds.

1703.  S. Sewall, Diary, 16 April (1879), II. 77. He is stoning the Cellar.

1872.  E. Leigh, Cheshire Gloss., 201. To stone a road, is to put large stones or boulders on the road, to force carriages, carts and horses to go over the fresh laid metal, instead of the beaten part of the road. A dangerous but general custom in Cheshire.

1890.  Church Bells, 3 Jan., 80/1. The vacant space above and at the sides being stoned in.

1893.  Baring-Gould, Cheap Jack Zita, II. xvii. 72. When a highway has been new stoned.

  † b.  To administer stones to (a falcon) as a purgative. Obs.

1618.  Latham, New Bk. Falconry (1633), 147. They be as hard Hawkes as any be, and must bee stoned and set to a sound stomacke when they should flie.

  c.  (with out)? To displace by stone. nonce-use.

1858.  Hawthorne, Fr. & Ital. Note-bks. (1871), II. 58. The earth, I think, is too much stoned out of the streets of an Italian city—paved … quite across, with broad flagstones.

  4.  To rub or polish with a stone; to sharpen on a whetstone; in Leather Manuf. to scour and smooth with a stock-stone.

1688.  [see STONING vbl. sb. 3].

1878.  Mrs. H. Wood, Pomeroy Abb., II. xvii. I was on my hands and knees, stoning the passage flags.

1884.  F. J. Britten, Watch & Clockm., 201. Brass services are generally ‘stoned’ preparatory to polishing, that is, rubbed square with a blue stone or water of Ayr stone and water or oil.

1885.  H. R. Procter, Tanning, 183. In the Lancashire district, butts are generally … ‘stoned,’ so as to remove the whole of the bloom.

1885.  Stevenson, Child’s Gard. Verses (1895), 83. When the scythe is stoned again.

  5.  To take the stones out of (ground); to clear or free from stones. ? Obs.

c. 1475.  Cath. Angl., 359/2 (Addit. MS.). To Stane, depetrare, petras remouere.

1563.  Hyll, Art Garden. (1593), 46. It needeth not after to be weeded or stoned.

1628.  [see STONING vbl. sb. 4].

  † 6.  To deprive of the testicles, castrate, geld. Obs.

1584.  Shuttleworths’ Acc. (Chetham Soc.), 20. The smith of Ecclestone for stoninge work horsies, xvj^d.

  7.  To take the stones out of (fruit): see prec. 12.

1639.  O. Wood, Alph. Bk. Secrets, 19. With … a few Raysins of the Sun stoned.

1665.  W. Hughes, Compl. Vineyard, 17. This way you may also make Gooseberry Wine,… Wine of Plumbs, &c., but these last must be stoned.

1675.  Hannah Woolley, Gentlew. Comp., 187. Goosberries…, cut off their heads and stone them.

1709.  W. King, Art of Love, V. 703. Stoning currants in whole bunches.

1769.  Mrs. Raffald, Eng. Housekpr. (1778), 241. Stone a pound and a half of cherries.

1845.  Eliza Acton, Mod. Cookery (ed. 2), 416. The peaches and apricots should be merely skinned, halved, and stoned.

1874.  Mrs. H. Wood, Master of Greylands, xix. 225. With not a raisin in the house stoned for plum-pudding!

  8.  intr. Of a fruit (drupe): To form a stone in the process of growth.

1842.  Loudon, Suburban Hort., 479. A few days before, and a few days after, the crops begin to stone, is the most critical period in forcing. Ibid., 592. The peach border will require occasional watering,… but water ought to be withheld when it is stoning and when it is ripening.

1852.  Beck’s Florist, 176. The fruit sets well and stones freely.