(Also with hyphen, or occas. as two words.) [Cf. OS. stênwerk, MHG., mod.G. steinwerk.]
1. Work built of stone; masonry.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Saints’ Lives, xxvii. 29. He … worhte þa of seolfre ænne heahne stypel on stanweorces ʓelicnysse.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), II. 8: Vawtes of stoonwerk wonderliche i-wrouȝt.
1412–20. Lydg., Troy Bk., II. 698. With spoutis þoruȝ & pipes … From þe ston-werke to þe canel rauȝt.
1556. Chron. Grey Friars (Camden), 75. The goodly stoneworke that stode behynde the hye alter.
1609. Holland, Amm. Marcell., XXIV. i. 241. The scluces or floudgates made of stone worke.
1776. G. Semple, Building in Water, 73. All that soft Slutch would be thrown out, and a firm Stone-work put in the Place of it.
1837. Penny Cycl., IX. 165/2. A course of stone work imbedded in cement.
a. 1894. Layard, Autobiog. (1903), I. iii. 146. The remains of the Lion of St. Mark carved in the stonework.
b. Artistic work of any kind executed in stone.
1910. D. G. Hogarth, in Encycl. Brit., I. 248/1. The magnificent gold work of the later period … should be compared with stone work in Crete, especially the steatite vases with reliefs found at Hagia Triada.
2. The process of working in stone, as in building; the labor or task of a mason.
1793. Smeaton, Edystone L., § 93. Whether there was any kind of mortar or cement used in the stone-work.
1870. J. L. Aikman, Centenary Anderston Ch., Glasgow, Hist. Sk. 60. The stone-work was let to Mr. Broom, builder.
b. Coal Mining. The work of driving headings through stone or rock: cf. stone-heading (STONE sb. 20).
1883. Gresley, Gloss. Coal-mining, 242. Stone work, driving of drifts or galleries in measures.
So Stone-worker, a worker in stone; one who shapes or carves stone, as in building or sculpture. Stone-working, the process of working in stone (also attrib.). Stone-works, (a) an establishment for preparing stone for building, decorative, or other purposes; (b) an establishment for making artificial stone.
1898. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., V. 253. The pulmonary fibrosis of metal-grinders, of *stone-workers … and some other trades, is popularly known as consumption.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Stone-working Tools.
1905. Miss A. S. Griffith, trans. Capart’s Prim. Art Egypt, ii. 50. As a question of stone-working it is astonishing to find primitive man making rings in flint.
1731. W. Halfpenny, Perspective, 34. Mr. Allen’s *Stone-Works, near the City of Bath.
1878. Jewitt, Ceramic Art, I. 163. At the commencement Mr. Ransome had … his stone-works at Ipswich.
