See Also: Ivory(medicine)
ivory(dictionary)
ivory(encyclopedia)
ivory(dictionary)
Ivory Coast map(tourism)
ivory tower(dictionary)
Merchant-Ivory(dictionary)
Ivory Coast(tourism)
ivory carving(encyclopedia)
ivory (as used in expressions)(encyclopedia)

ivory (iou)



ivory noun & adjective. ME.
[Old French yvoire from Proto-Romance, from Latin ebor-, ebur ivory, rel. to Egyptian ab, abu, Coptic ebou, ebu elephant.]
A. noun.
a. The very hard, white, elastic, fine-grained dentine composing the main part of the tusks of the elephant, mammoth, hippopotamus, walrus, and narwhal, highly valued as a material for articles of use or ornament. ME.
b. A tusk or tooth made of this. L19.
The colour of ivory; ivory white. L16.
Daily News Nearly all recent brides have worn ivory.
A substance resembling ivory, or made in imitation of it. M18.
collect. sing. & in pl. The teeth. slang. L18.
Guardian I gets his head in a leg scissors and he sinks his ivories into my thigh.
collect. sing. & in pl. The keys of a piano or similar instrument. colloq. E19.
Thackeray It's a wonder how any fingers can move over the jingling ivory so quickly as Miss Cann's. B. Mason A piano with peeling ivories.
Any of various objects formerly made of ivory, as (a) a season ticket; (b) (collect. sing. & in pl.) dice; (c) in pl., billiard-balls. colloq. or slang. M19.
An ornament, carving, etc., made of ivory. L19.
W. Maskell The famous Assyrian ivories..preserved in the British Museum.
Phrases: black ivory slang African slaves as a commodity. fossil ivory: obtained from the tusks of mammoths. tickle the ivories, tinkle the ivories colloq. play the piano. vegetable ivory the hard albumen of the nut or seed of certain palms, esp. the tropical American Phytelephas macrocarpa, which resembles ivory in hardness, colour, and texture, and is used for ornamental work, buttons, etc.
b. adjective.
Made or consisting of ivory. LME.
A. S. Byatt Little butter knives with blunt ends and ivory handles.
Resembling ivory; of the colour or texture of ivory. L16.
Ouida She turned her ivory shoulder on him. A. Munro Beryl was dressed up in a satiny ivory dress.
Comb. & special collocations: ivory-bill a rare N. American woodpecker, Campephilus principalis; ivory-billed adjective having a bill resembling ivory; ivory-billed woodpecker = ivory-bill above; ivory black a black pigment from calcined ivory; ivory board a kind of pasteboard with both surfaces smooth; ivory gull an all-white circumpolar gull, Pagophila eburnea; ivory-nut the seed of Phytelephas macrocarpa, the albumen of which hardens into vegetable ivory; ivory-nut palm, ivory palm any of various tropical American palms of the genus Phytelephas, or Micronesian ones of the genus Metroxylon, which bear nuts yielding vegetable ivory; ivory-paper art paper or thin card with a polished surface; ivory plum US (the fruit of) the checkerberry, Gaultheria procumbens, or its ally the creeping snowberry, G. hispidula; ivory tower a state of seclusion from the ordinary world and protection from the harsh realities of life; ivorytype Photography a hand-coloured print produced by various processes, intended to resemble a painting on ivory; ivory-white noun & adjective (of) the colour of ivory; ivorywood the Australian tree Siphonodon australe (family Siphonodontaceae), or its timber, which is used for drawing instruments etc.
ivory-like adjective resembling (that of) ivory M19.