marble

English Online Dictionary. What means marble‎? What does marble mean?

English

Etymology

From Middle English marble, marbre, from Anglo-Norman and Old French marbre, from Latin marmor, from Ancient Greek μάρμαρος (mármaros), perhaps related to μαρμάρεος (marmáreos, “gleaming”). Much of the early classical marble came from the 'Marmaris' sea above the Aegean. The forms from French replaced Old English marma, which had previously been borrowed from Latin.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmɑː.bəl/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈmɑɹ.bəl/
• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)bəl
• Hyphenation: mar‧ble

Noun

marble (countable and uncountable, plural marbles)

1. (uncountable, petrology) A metamorphic rock of crystalline limestone. [from 12th c.]

   Hypernym: limestone

   • 1751, Thomas Morell (librettist), Jephtha:

     Open thy marble jaws, O tomb / And hide me, earth, in thy dark womb.

2. (countable, games) A small ball used in games, originally of marble but now usually of glass or ceramic. [from 17th c.]
3. (in the plural, archaeology) Statues made from marble. [from 17th c.]

Hyponyms

• (small ball): china, plaster

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

marble (third-person singular simple present marbles, present participle marbling, simple past and past participle marbled)

1. (transitive) To cause (something to have) the streaked or swirled appearance of certain types of marble, for example by mixing viscous ingredients incompletely, or by applying paint or other colorants unevenly.

   Synonym: marbleize
2. (intransitive) To get or have the streaked or swirled appearance of certain types of marble, for example due to the incomplete mixing of viscous ingredients, or the uneven application of paint or other colorants.
3. (transitive) To cause meat, usually beef, pork, or lamb, to be interlaced with fat so that its appearance resembles that of marble.

   Synonym: marbleize

   • 1848, Samuel D. Martin, in a letter to the Albany Cultivator, quoted in the Fourteenth Annual Report of the Ohio State Board of Agriculture (for the year 1859; published 1860), page 157:

     Their flesh is soft (tender), and they throw a portion of their fat among the lean so as to marble it. The beef is of a better quality and they take on fat much easier.
4. (intransitive, of meat, especially beef) To become interlaced with fat; (of fat) to interlace through meat.
5. (by extension, figurative) To lace or be laced throughout.

Derived terms

• marbling

Related terms

• marmoreal

Translations

Adjective

marble (comparative more marble, superlative most marble)

1. Made of, or resembling, marble.

2. (figurative) Cold; hard; unfeeling.

Further reading

• marble on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “marble”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “marble”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Ambler, Balmer, Blamer, ambler, blamer, lamber, ramble