HYPHEN
WORDNET DICTIONARY
CIDE DICTIONARY
OXFORD DICTIONARY
DEVIL DICTIONARY
THESAURUS
WORDNET DICTIONARY
Noun Meerschaum has 2 senses
- meerschaum(n = noun.substance) sepiolite - a white clayey mineral; is a kind of mineral
- meerschaum(n = noun.artifact) - a pipe having a bowl made of meerschaum; is a kind of pipe, tobacco pipe
CIDE DICTIONARY
- A fine white claylike mineral, soft, and light enough when in dry masses to float in water. It is a hydrous silicate of magnesia, and is obtained chiefly in Asia Minor. It is manufacturd into tobacco pipes, cigar holders, etc. Also called
sepiolite . [1913 Webster] - A tobacco pipe made of this mineral; a
meerschaum pipe . [1913 Webster]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
1 a soft white form of hydrated magnesium silicate, chiefly found in Turkey, which resembles clay.
2 a tobacco-pipe with the bowl made from this.
DEVIL DICTIONARY
Meerschaum
n. (Literally, seafoam, and by many erroneously supposed to be made of it.) A fine white clay, which for convenience in coloring it brown is made into tobacco pipes and smoked by the workmen engaged in that industry. The purpose of coloring it has not been disclosed by the manufacturers.
There was a youth (you've heard before,
This woeful tale, may be),
Who bought a meerschaum pipe and swore
That color it would he!
He shut himself from the world away,
Nor any soul he saw.
He smoke by night, he smoked by day,
As hard as he could draw.
His dog died moaning in the wrath
Of winds that blew aloof;
The weeds were in the gravel path,
The owl was on the roof.
"He's gone afar, he'll come no more,"
The neighbors sadly say.
And so they batter in the door
To take his goods away.
Dead, pipe in mouth, the youngster lay,
Nut-brown in face and limb.
"That pipe's a lovely white," they say,
"But it has colored him!"
The moral there's small need to sing --
'Tis plain as day to you:
Don't play your game on any thing
That is a gamester too.
Martin Bulstrode