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less recrystallized by heat, pressure, etc., as in the change of sedimentary limestone to marble. Murchison.

A beautiful black marble found in fragments among Roman ruins, and usually thought to have come from ancient Laconia.

used for making cameos, the figure being cut in one layer with the next as a ground. Onyx marble, a banded variety of marble or calcium carbonate resembling onyx. It is obtained from Mexico.

Of or pertaining to Paros, an island in the Ægean Sea noted for its excellent statuary marble; as, Parian marble. Parian chronicle, a most ancient chronicle of the city of Athens, engraved on marble in the Isle of Paros, now among the Arundelian marbles.

A celebrated marble temple of Athene, on the Acropolis at Athens. It was of the pure Doric order, and has had an important influence on art.

Of or pertaining to Mount Pentelicus, near Athens, famous for its fine white marble quarries; obtained from Mount Pentelicus; as, the Pentelic marble of which the Parthenon is built.

Fig.: To become stony, callous, or obdurate. Like Niobe we marble grow, And petrify with grief. Dryden.

ntine mosaic is a familiar instance of work in pietra dura, though the ground may be soft marble.

The act or process of measuring, at the various distances from the surface of a block of marble, the surface of a future piece of statuary; also, a process used in cutting the statue from the artist's model.

glossy, usually by friction; to burnish; to overspread with luster; as, to polish glass, marble, metals, etc.

(a) A gray or yellow slate, found in Bohemia and Auvergne, and used for polishing glass, marble, and metals. (b) A kind of hone or whetstone; hone slate. -- Polishing snake, a tool used in cleaning lithographic stones. -- Polishing wheel, a wheel or disk coated with, or composed of, abrading material, for polishing…

a ponderous load; the ponderous elephant. The sepulcher . . . Hath oped his ponderous and marble jaws. Shak.

re disseminated. There are red, purple, and green varieties, which are highly esteemed as marbles. Porphyry shell (Zoöl.), a handsome marine gastropod shell (Oliva porphyria), having a dark red or brown polished surface, marked with light spots, like porphyry.

To dig or take from a quarry; as, to quarry marble.

A rubber of hard wood used in smoothing marble to be polished. Knight.

in the memory or imagination; to make a copy of; as, to reproduce a person's features in marble, or on canvas; to reproduce a design.

A curved file used in carving wool and marble.

o ruin; to become decayed or dilapidated; to perish. [R.] Though he his house of polished marble build, Yet shall it ruin like the moth's frail cell. Sandys. If we are idle, and disturb the industrious in their business, we shall ruin the faster. Locke.

To cut with a saw; to separate with a saw; as, to saw timber or marble.

An imitation of any veined and ornamental stone, as marble, formed by a substratum of finely ground gypsum mixed with glue, the surface of which, while soft, is variegated with splinters of marble, spar, granite, etc., and subsequently colored and polished.