agate
/ˈæɡ.ɪt/ noun C2- A semitransparent, uncrystallized silicate mineral and semiprecious stone, presenting various tints in the same specimen, with colors delicately arranged and often curved in parallel alternating dark and light stripes or bands, or blended in clouds; various authorities call it a variety of chalcedony, a variety of quartz, or a combination of the two.
- The size of type between pearl and nonpareil, standardized as 5+¹⁄₂-point.
- One fourteenth of an inch.
- A tool used by gold-wire drawers, bookbinders, etc.;—so called from the agate fixed in it for burnishing.
- A marble made from agate.
- A testicle.
Plural agates
From the library
But the walls were made of screens of marble tracery--beautiful milk-white fretwork, set with agates and cornelians and jasper and lapis lazuli, and as the moon came up behind the hill it shone through the open work, casting shadows on the ground like black velvet embroidery.
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