freestone
nounUK /ˈfɹiːstəʊn/ · US /ˈfɹiːstoʊn/
Etymology From free + stone.
1
Geography, Geology, Natural sciences Sedimentary rock: a type of stone that is composed of small particles and easily shaped, most commonly sandstone or limestone.
- Mr Allworthy […] died immensely rich and built an hospital […] but had he done nothing more I should have left him to have recorded his own merit on some fair freestone over the door of that hospital.1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling:
- It might, under all the circumstances above stated, have been a question with other builders, whether to import one shipload of costly jaspers, or twenty of chalk flints; and whether to build a small church faced with porphyry and paved with agate, or to raise a vast cathedral in freestone.1853, John Ruskin, “IV, St. Mark's”, in The Stones of Venice, volume II (The Sea-Stories), London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC, § XXVII, page 77:
1 more example
- The exterior walls are of freestone, and have a smooth, neat appearance.1955 June, C. L. Mowat, “The Bristol & Portishead Pier & Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 378:
2
A stone fruit having a stone (pit) that is relatively free of the flesh.