Forms: see WHET v. and STONE sb.; also 4 whestoun, 4–5 wheston, weston(e, 4–6 whestone, 5 whestoon, watstone, quetstone, 5–6 whatstane; β. 6 Sc. quhitstane, 7 whitston, 8 whitstone. [OE. hwelstán (huete-, huetistán) = (M)Du. wetsteen, MLG. wettestên (LG. wettstein), OHG. wez(z)istein (MHG. wetz(e)stein, G. wetzstein): f. WHET v. + STONE sb.]
1. A shaped stone used for giving a smooth edge to cutting tools when they have been ground.
c. 725. Corpus Gloss. (Hessels), C 746. Cox, huetestan.
c. 893. K. Ælfred, Oros., IV. xiii. § 5. Hit biþ eac ʓeornlic þæt mon heardlice gnide þone hnescestan mealmstan æfter þæm þæt he þence þone soelestan hwetstan on to ʓeræceanne.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, I. 631. A wheston [v.r. weston] is no keruyng Instrument, And yet it maketh sharpe keruyng tolys.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVI. xxiii. (Tollem. MS.). Ben diuerse maner of whetstones, and some neden water and some neden oyle for-to whette.
1472. Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 247. j whatstane.
1573–80. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 61. Get grindstone and whetstone, for toole that is dull.
1584. Cogan, Haven Health, cxcii. 150. And, as it is saide a good Cooke can make you good meate of a whetstone.
1587. Holinshed, Chron., III. 916/1. I am … taken suddenlie with a thing about my stomach, that lieth there along as cold as a whetstone.
1606. Dekker, Newes from Hell, Wks. (Grosart), II. 99. Some pittifull fellowes (that haue … wittes colde as Whetstones, and more blunt).
1692. South, Serm., John vii. 17 (1697), I. 270. Diligence is to the Understanding, as the Whetstone to the Razor.
1794. Kirwan, Elem. Min. (ed. 2), I. 239. Some argillites and sandstones; these last form the coarser whet-stones.
1857. Miller, Elem. Chem., Org., xi. § 2 (1862), 775. The … skins … are carefully smoothed with a whetstone upon a beam.
1896. J. Davidson, Fleet St. Ecl., Ser. II. 14. Still and anon The whetstone shrieked against the curving blade.
β. 1513. Douglas, Æneis, VII. xi. 62. Sum … on quhitstanis thair axis scharpis at hame.
1533. Bellenden, Livy, I. xv. (S.T.S.), I. 84. Þow suld cut þat quhitstane in þi hand with ane rasoure.
b. Any hard fine-grained rock, as novaculite, of which whetstones are made; hone-stone.
1578. T. Proctor, Gorg. Gallery, H iij b. Like as what stone,… hardiest is with toole to bee graue, Doth sooner breake in peeces, then it bendeth.
1661. J. Childrey, Brit. Baconica, 111. This shire is well stored with Milstones, Crystal, Alabaster and Whetstone.
1788, 1806. [see HONE sb.1 3, 4].
1894. Northumbld. Gloss., Whetstone, or Whetstone-sill, stata of argillaceous and siliceous hazle-stone in the carboniferous limestone formation.
c. transf. (See quots.)
1580. T. Newton, Approved Med., 93 b. A Mole in a womans body, otherwise called a whetston, or a moone Calfe [i.e., a false conception].
1683. Thoresby, Diary (ed. Hunter), I. 155. This place [Grantham] is … chiefly noted of travellers, for a peculiar sort of thin cake, called Grantham Whetstones.
1886. Cheshire Gloss., Whetstun,… any hard swelling.
1887. S. Cheshire Gloss., Whetstone, a lump in the udder of a cow, consequent upon the ducts having been overcharged.
2. Allusive and fig. uses. a. gen. with reference to the use of a whetstone.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), VII. 341. He … whette þe rude soules to goode wiþ þe whestoun of vertues.
1547–64. Bauldwin, Mor. Philos. (Palfr.), 111. Except the sinful heart of man … be often scoured with the whetstone of aduersity.
1589. Nashe, Martin Marprel., Wks. (Grosart), I. 157. Shooting out their venemous shafts, with mischeeuous heads, sharpened vpon Martins most malicious whetstone.
1603. Dekker, Wond. Year, Wks. (Grosart), I. 147. The very name of Londoners being worse then ten whetstones to sharpen the sword of Iustice against them.
1654. R. Whitlock, Ζωοτομια, 165. Rhetoricall Topicks are such Whetstones, that even the Sword of the Spirit (that two-edged Sword) hath often used.
1763. Colman, Jealous Wife, IV. 59. He serves for nothing but a mere Whetstone of your Ill-humour.
1818. Byron, Ch. Har., IV. xxxviii. Boileau, whose rash envy could allow No strain which shamed his country’s creaking lyre, That whetstone of the teeth—monotony in wire!
1821. Scott, Kenilw., xv. The face of the Sovereign was a whetstone to the soldier’s sword.
b. in allusion to the former custom of hanging a whetstone round the neck of a liar; esp. in phr. to lie for the whetstone, to be a great liar.
[1364. Liber Albus (Rolls), IV. 601. Juggement de Pillorie par iii heures, ove un ague pier entour soun col, pur mensonges controeves.]
1418. Cal. Let.-Bks. Lond., Let.-Bk. I (1909), 197. He, as a fals lyere … shal stonde … upon þe pillorye … wiþ a Westone aboute his necke.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., xxi. 80. A, good sir, lett hym oone; he lyes for the quetstone, I gyf hym the pryce.
1472. Cov. Leet Bk., 372. Nor that they frohensfurth enbrase eny jure, vppon the peyn to lose at þe first defalt, C s., and at þe ij de defalt to haue the wheston aboute their nekkes.
1570. Foxe, A. & M. (ed. 2), 196/1. Peraduenture he that was the inuentor fyrst of thys tale of the stone, was disposed to lie for the whetstone: Wherfore in my mynde he is worthy to haue it.
1577. Fulke, Confut. Purg., 437. You haue sayd enough, M. Allen, to winne the whetstone, if it were as bigge as any mountaine in the worlde. Ibid. (1579), Confut. Sanders, 596. Of all the lowde lyes that euer I heard, this may goe for the whetstone.
1592. Nashe, Strange Newes, Wks. (Grosart), II. 267. Ware stumbling of whetstones in the darke there, my maisters.
1593. G. Harvey, Pierce’s Super., Wks. (Grosart), II. 211. He might … for his labour challenge to be preferred to the Clarkship of the whetstone. Ibid., 215. Our worshipfull Clarkes of the whetstone, Doctour Clare [etc.] … diuers late Historiologers, and … this new Tale-founder himselfe.
1600. Nashe, Summer’s Last Will, Wks. (Grosart), VI. 98. O intolerable lying villayne, that was never begotten without the consent of a whetstone!
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 639. They wil presently giue both these Authors and me the Whet-stone for rare vntruths.
1658. [H. Edmundson], Fellow-trav., 285. A great Person … had in a frolick set on some wanton wits to lye for the Whetstone.
1709. Mrs. Centlivre, Busie Body, III. iv. If you be not as errant a Cuckold, as e’re drove Bargain upon the Exchange,… I am the Son of a Whetstone.
1792. Budworth, Ramble to Lakes, vi.
1881. Leic. Gloss.
β. 1778. Exmoor Courtship (E.D.S.), 79. What a gurt Lee es thate!… thek Man should a’ had the Whitstone.
c. Something that sharpens the wits, desires, etc., or incites to action.
1551. T. Wilson, Logic, Ep. A iij. I professe it to be but a spurre, or a whetstone, to sharpe the pens of some other.
1551. Recorde, Pathw. Knowl., Ep. to King. By the readyng of wyttie artes (which be as the whette stones of witte).
1583. Greene, Mamillia, 8 b. The court Mamillia, is ye whetston of lust, the baite of vanity, the call of Cupid. Ibid. (1588), Pandosto, B 1 b. Preferment to a meane man, is a whetstone to courage.
1618. J. Taylor (Water P.), Pennyles Pilgr., B 3. Wits whetstone, want.
1657. R. Ligon, Barbadoes (1673), 37. For a whetstone, to pull on a cup of wine, we have dryed Neats tongues.
1691. Wood, Ath. Oxon., I. 358. The Wits … made him their Whetstone.
1752. Hume, Pol. Disc., ii. 31. Anger, which is said to be the whetstone of courage.
1821. Shelley, Epipsych., Passages, etc., 100. Let them read Shakespeare’s sonnets, taking thence A whetstone for their dull intelligence.
a. 1857. R. A. Vaughan, Ess. & Rem. (1858), I. 7. Their wit could content itself with no less royal a whetstone than himself and his son Pius.
β. 1617. R. Cocks, Diary (Hakl. Soc.), I. 240. I am of opinion that Goresano, our late jurebasso, is a whitston to egg hym on against us.
3. attrib. and Comb., as whetstone-mountain; whetstone-shaped adj.; † whetstone-leasing (LEASING sb.): cf. 2 b above.
1598. Bp. Hall, Sat., IV. vi. *Whet-stone leasings of olde Maundeuile.
1851. B. Thorpe, Northern Mythol., I. 71. The club was dashed in pieces, of which one portion fell on the earth, whence come all the *whetstone mountains.
1883. Encycl. Brit., XVI. 680/1. *Whetstone-shaped crystals.
1888. Rolleston & Jackson, Anim. Life, 114. The mucus … contains whetstone-shaped bodies.
