Forms: 1 stániʓ, 3 stoni, 3–4 stani, 4–5 stany, 5–6 stonye, 6 stoany, Sc. staany, 6–7 stonie, 7 Sc. stanie, 7–9 stoney, 4– stony. [OE. stániʓ = OHG. steinag, Goth. stainah-s:—OTeut. *stainaʓo-, -aχo-, f. *staino- STONE sb.: see -Y. (OE. had also stǽniʓ:—OTeut. type *stainīʓo-.)]
1. Abounding in, or having the character of, stone or rock; full of rocks; rocky. Now rare or Obs.
† Stony sea: the Adriatic.
c. 975. Rushw. Gosp., Matt. xiii. 5. Þæt oþere þonne ʓefeollon on staniʓ lond.
c. 1325. Metr. Hom., 52. That gat that ledes Til hel … es stany and thornye Wit couaitys, and glotounye, [etc.].
c. 1382. Wyclif, Acts xxvii. 27. In the stoony see [Vulg. in Adria].
c. 1440. Gesta Rom., viii. 19 (Harl. MS.). The wey toward the cite was stony, þorny, and scroggy.
a. 1500. Medulla Gram., Adriaticus, stonye.
1526. Tindale, Mark iv. 5. Some [seed] fell on a stony [1611 on stony; R.V. 1881 on the rocky] grounde, where it had not moche erth.
1638. Junius, Paint. Ancients, 92. Hee betooke himselfe to a stony place of a reasonable height.
1709. T. Robinson, Nat. Hist. Westmld. & Cumbld., xv. 87. Those high, steep, and stony Mountains, which are called the Skrees.
1832. Tennyson, Mariana in the South, iv. Day increased from heat to heat, On stony drought and steaming salt.
b. Full of or abounding in stones; containing many stones.
c. 1400. Promp. Parv., 477/1. Stony, or full of stonys, lapidosus, petrosus.
c. 1440. Pallad. on Husb., XIII. 38. In stony grounde ek loueth he to stonde.
1538. Elyot, Dict., Calculosus locus, a stonye place.
1669. Worlidge, Syst. Agric. (1681), 260. Eels commonly abscond themselves under stones in stony Waters.
1765. Museum Rust., IV. 219. He excludes both stoney and clayey soils from the use of his plough.
1815. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, II. 587. A gravelly soil consists chiefly of small stones from the size of a pea to that of a walnut, but when a large proportion of the stones are of the latter size or larger, the land is said to be stony.
1855. Tennyson, Brook, 39. I chatter over stony ways.
† c. Of fruits: Having a stone; also, abounding in stone-like seeds. Obs.
1585. Higins, Junius’ Nomencl., 97/1. Pomum calculosum, lapidosum,… stonie fruite, or such fruit as hath a grauellie core.
1681. Langford, Plain Instr. Fruit-trees, 135. The English [Quince] is the most stony.
1683. J. Poyntz, Pres. Prosp. Tobago, 8. Guavers are a Fruit that’s very stony.
1784. Cowper, Task, I. 120. I fed on scarlet hips and stony haws.
2. † a. Made of stone. Obs.
1382. Wyclif, 2 Cor. iii. 3. Writun … not in stoony [1388 stony, stonen] tablis but in fleischly tablis of herte.
c. 1447–8. Shillingford Lett. (Camden), 85. Wher was never no stale but a stony walle.
1551. T. Wilson, Logic, E iij. Euen as Moses receyued the same [law] of God in stony tables.
1611. Coryat, Crudities, 58. A faire stonie Bridge.
1612. Two Noble K., V. i. 62. The stony girthes of Citties.
1776. Goldsm., Nat. Hist., I. 382. Another noise … like the rattling of a great cart, upon a stony pavement.
b. Of the nature of stone.
1695. Woodward, Nat. Hist. Earth, II. (1723), 78. The Stoney Matter of the Strata.
1827. Faraday, Chem. Manip., xiii. (1842), 302. Ordinary earthy or stony matter.
1871. G. Macdonald, Sonn. conc. Jesus, xiv. When the soaring skylark sings How shall the stony statue strain to hear?
c. Consisting of stones; occas. inflicted by stones. Chiefly poet. ? Obs.
c. 1586. C’tess Pembroke, Ps. LXXIX. i. Jerusalem … hath suffred … utter wrack, To stony heapes her buildings turned.
1611. Coryat, Crudities, 103. A certaine stony circle that appeareth a little aboue the ground.
1657. Billingsly, Brachy-Martyrol., iv. 19. Holy Steven Did through a Stony-volley go to heaven.
1697. Dryden, Æneid, IX. 1092. His golden helm gives way with stony blows Battered.
1736. Gray, Statius, I. 18. Batter Cadmus walls with stony showers.
3. Pertaining or relating to stone or stones, rare.
1847. Tennyson, Princess, iii. 343. Chattering stony names Of shale and hornblende, rag and trap and tuff, Amygdaloid and trachyte.
1849. H. Miller, Footpr. Creator, xv. (1874), 290. The stony science.
1864. Ruskin, in Reader, IV. 678/1. I … have been at stony work ever since, as I could find time.
4. Resembling stone in consistence; hard like stone; very hard.
1523–34. Fitzherb., Husb., § 137. A peare or a warden wolde be graffed in a pyrre-stocke,… and some men graffe theym in a whyte-thorne, and than it wyll be the more harder and stonye.
c. 1586. C’tess Pembroke, Ps. CV. ix. Noe rayny cloude but breakes in stony haile.
1664. Evelyn, Kal. Hort., Feb. (1679), 10. Set all sorts of Kernels and stony-Seeds.
1834. H. M’Murtrie, Cuvier’s Anim. Kingd., 470. A layer of stony granules, which form an extremely indurated crust.
1857. Dickens, Dorrit, II. i. The thin, hard, stony wine.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., III. 884. Formation of a stony concretion … in the nose … a rhinolith.
b. Of a quality (as hardness, color): Like that of stone.
1565. Cooper, Thesaurus, Lapidea duritia, a stonie hardenesse.
1796. Withering, Brit. Plants (ed. 3), IV. 64. Root single, central, of a stony consistence.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., IV. 747. There is very marked induration … often stony hardness.
1910. W. Parker, in Encycl. Brit., XI. 352/2. In colour they range from a pale stony or yellowish shade to a rich dark brown.
5. fig. a. ‘Hard,’ insensible, or unfeeling, as if consisting of stone; hardened, obdurate.
c. 1230[?]. Hali Meid., 22. Stani were his heorte ȝef ha ne mealt i teares.
a. 1250. Prov. Ælfred, B. 694. He hauit stoni herte, no-þing him ne smerteþ.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 288 b. The herte begynneth to … melte … whiche before was all harde and stony as a flynte.
1595. Markham, Sir R. Grinuile, To Earl Sussex 4. Sauing the Muse by stonie times vndoone.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., IV. i. 4. A stonie adversary, an inhumane wretch, Vncapable of pitty.
a. 1640. J. Ball, Treat. Covt. Grace (1645), 340. A fleshie heart cannot be received by a stony, but the stony is removed by the fleshie.
1648. J. Beaumont, Psyche, XIV. cxlii. From the staring People’s stony eye He of compassion not one drop had wrung.
1847. C. Brontë, Jane Eyre, iv. She introduced me to the stony stranger.
a. 1854. H. Reed, Lect. Eng. Hist., x. (1856), 187. The tyrant’s indurated and stony conscience.
absol. 1667. Milton, P. L., XI. 4. Prevenient Grace descending had remov’d The stonie from thir hearts.
b. Rigid, fixed, motionless; destitute of movement or expression: esp. of the eyes or look.
1642. H. More, Song of Soul, II. iii. 44. Some Giant … With stony staring eyes.
1813. Scott, Trierm., II. xxvi. Long shall close in stony sleep Eyes for ruth that would not weep.
1855. Tennyson, Maud, I. xiii. 22. He … Gorgonised me from head to foot With a stony British stare.
c. Of fear, grief, etc.: ‘Petrifying,’ stupefying: having no relief.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. vi. 37. Suddein cold did ronne through every vaine, And stony horrour all her scences fild. Ibid., II. viii. 46. The stony feare Ran to his hart.
1794. W. Blake, Songs Exper., Earth’s Answ., 4. Stony dread!
1882. ‘Edna Lyall,’ Donovan, iv. A stony speechless sorrow.
d. slang. Short for stony-broke (see 6).
1890. [R. C. Lehmann], Harry Fludyer, 122. Þat said he was stoney or broke or something but he gave me a sov.
1894. W. H. Wilkins & H. Vivian, Green Bay Tree, I. 25. I shall be quite stony if this goes on.
1905. Vachell, Hill, ix. 193. You’ll have to wait till I have the money. I’m stoney now.
6. Combinations, etc. a. In advb. comb. with adjs., as † stony-blind (= STONE-BLIND), -pitiless. b. Parasynthetic formations, as stony-eyed, -jointed, -toed, -winged adjs. c. Special comb. and collocations: † stony bone (trans. med.L. os petrosum: see PETROSAL; cf. ROCKY a.1 3 a), the petrous portion of the temporal bone, containing the internal ear; stony-broke a. (slang) = stone-broke (STONE sb. 20); † stony coal = STONE-COAL; stony cobbler (see quot.); stony colic, colic due to an intestinal concretion (cf. stone-colic, STONE sb. 21); stony coral = stone-coral (STONE sb. 21 b); † Stony Mountains, the Rocky Mountains (see ROCKY a.1 1 b); † stony sage (see quot.).
1587. W. Fowler, Wks. (S.T.S.), I. 39/73. The man is *stony blinde that can not see the Sun.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 487. The *stony-bone.
1677. trans. Groeneveldt’s Treat. Stone, 9. The Os petrosum, or Stony-bone in the Organ of our Hearing.
1894. Astley, 50 Yrs. My Life, II. 84. Though *stony broke, it still reposes on my sideboard.
1895. Marie Corelli, Sorrows of Satan, x. I’m cleaned out—‘stony-broke,’ as the slang goes.
1617. Moryson, Itin., III. 93. The County of Namures … hath Mines of Iron and plenty of *stony Coale.
1880. Day, Fishes Gt. Brit., I. 82. Little- or lesser-weever:… *Stony-cobbler.
1822–9. Good’s Study Med. (ed. 3), I. 252. Enterolithica. *Stony colic. From bezoards and other intestinal concretions.
1882. Cassell’s Nat. Hist., VI. 277. The *Stony Corals are well-known forms of animal life.
1859. Ld. Lytton (‘O. Meredith’), Wanderer (ed. 2), 177. Shapes of beauty each *stony-eyed corpse there hath known.
1767. Ellis, Corallines, in Phil. Trans., LVII. 408. The *stony-jointed Corallines.
1811. Pinkerton, Mod. Geog., 542. The ridge called the *Stoney Mountains.
1818–22. Encycl. Metrop., XIV. 305/2.
1604. Meeting of Gallants at Ordinary (Percy Soc.), 7. Are not my Acts More *stony-pittilesse?
1548. Turner, Names Herbes, 73. Sideritis prima … may be called in englishe walsage or *stonisage.
1845. Dickens, Chimes, i. 6. A breezy,… blue-nosed, red-eyed, *stony-toed, tooth-chattering place it was, to wait in, in the winter-time.
1855. Bailey, Mystic, 45. Dragon *stony-winged.
