Navigation
Home
Resources
Irregular verbs quizzes English conjugator English-French dictionary French dictionary English dictionary Monolingual dictionaries Scores by institution Free sample tests FAQ Pricing Tourism training Blog Videos
Login Sign up
Blog
Videos
Pricing
FR EN

soapstone

noun, verb — 3 senses

soapstone

noun

US /ˈsoʊpˌstoʊn/

Etymology From soap + stone; so called because the archetypal varieties of the stone resemble soap in multiple ways: their feel, appearance, and carvability. First use appears c. 1681, in the writings of Nehemiah Grew.

1

Geography, Geology, Natural sciences A soft rock, rich in talc, also containing serpentine and either magnetite, dolomite or calcite.

  • To have a reliable fire, you'll need to carve a lamp from soapstone (you know what soapstone looks like, right?), render some oil for the lamp from blubber, and make a wick out of a particular species of moss.2016, Joseph Henrich, chapter 3, in The Secret of Our Success […] , Princeton: Princeton University Press, →ISBN:
2

Chemistry, Geography, Geology, Mineralogy, Natural sciences, Physical sciences Synonym of saponite.

Derived terms
soapstoner

soapstone

verb

Etymology From soap + stone; so called because the archetypal varieties of the stone resemble soap in multiple ways: their feel, appearance, and carvability. First use appears c. 1681, in the writings of Nehemiah Grew.

1

To scrub with soapstone.

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.