whinstone | (n) any of various hard colored rocks (especially rocks consisting of chert or basalt), Syn. whin |
Whinstone | n. [ Whin + stone; cf. Scot. quhynstane. ] A provincial name given in England to basaltic rocks, and applied by miners to other kind of dark-colored unstratified rocks which resist the point of the pick. -- for example, to masses of chert. Whin-dikes, and whin-sills, are names sometimes given to veins or beds of basalt. [ 1913 Webster ] |