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Definition of "hone" []

  • A fine-grained whetstone for giving a keen edge to a cutting tool. (noun)
  • A tool with a rotating abrasive tip for enlarging holes to precise dimensions. (noun)
  • To sharpen on a fine-grained whetstone. (verb-transitive)
  • To perfect or make more intense or effective: a speaker who honed her delivery by long practice. (verb-transitive)
  • Hone in To move or advance toward a target or goal: The missiles honed in on the military installation. (phrasal-verb)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "hone" in a sentence
  • "Mays, I use the word hone, Mays practiced being Mays."
  • "(In the past, he's also offered fish such as sayori, needlefish, and hamo, daggertooth conger pike, an eel-like summer-season thing so bony that no one could figure out how to eat it until the people of Kyoto devised a special technique called hone-giri, to which Takayama-san has added variations of his own.)"
  • "Sunnen has launched the HTA actuator hone, which is said to be ideal for cylinder surfacing and engineered for production of gas-meter tubes as well as light-duty metal removal applications."
Words like "hone"