Also snakestone, snake stone. [f. SNAKE sb.]
1. An ammonite. Now dial.
1661. J. Childrey, Brit. Baconica, 77. In this too they agree with the Snake-stones of Keinsham.
1668. Charleton, Onomast., 267. Sceleton Serpentis,… Ophiomorphites, Snake-stone.
1696. Aubrey, Nat. Hist. Wilts. (1847), 45. About two or three miles from the Devises are found in a pitt Snake-stones (cornua ammonis) no bigger than a sixpence.
1708. Phil. Trans., XXVI. 78. The Sayler or (as ’tis commonly call’d) the Snake-stone.
1758. [see AMMONITE 1].
1828. G. Young, Geol. Surv. Yorksh. Coast, 138. The well known Whitby snake-stones.
1854–. in dialect glossaries (Yks., Linc., Northants., Leic.).
2. A porous or absorbent substance regarded as efficacious in curing snake-bite or as a remedy against poison; a serpent-stone.
1694. Phil. Trans., XVIII. 128. I think they all recovered, to which he applyed the Snake-stones.
1698. Fryer, Acc. E. India & P., 53. A Factitious Stone (which we call a Snake-stope) is a Counter-poyson to all deadly Bites.
1822. J. Flint, Lett. fr. Amer., 128. In some parts of the Union, what are called snake-stones are relied on as certain cures for the bite of the reptile, and of mad dogs.
1855. Browning, An Epistle, 17. The vagrant Scholar to his Sage at home Sends … Three samples of true snake-stone.
1903. Sir M. G. Gerard, Leaves fr. Diaries, x. 376–7. A snake-stone is … a secretion which occasionally forms on the palate of a snake’s mouth.
3. A small perforated stone (cf. adder-stone, ADDER sb.2 5).
1700. Lhywd, in Rowlands, Mona Antiqua (1723), 338. Besides the Snake-Stones,… the Highlanders have their Snail-Stones, Paddoc-stones [etc.], to all which they attribute their several Virtues.
1872. Sir J. Evans, Anc. Stone Implements, 391. In Harris and Lewis the distaff and spindle are still in common use, and yet the original intention of the stone spindle-whorls, which occur there as elsewhere, appears to be unknown. They are called clach-nathrach, adder-stones or snake-stones.
4. techn. (See later quots.)
1850. Holtzapffel, Turning, III. 1040. Marks are then made with a piece of snake-stone, blue-stone, or even common slate pencil.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Snakestone, a kind of bone slate, or whetstone obtained in Scotland, and also known as Ayr stone.
1870. Eng. Mech., 7 Jan., 417/3. The snakestone…, used by lithographers … is a carbonate or lime, and is found in Germany and in India. The snake stone used by marble polishers is a fine grit, and is found at Water of Ayr.
