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Definition of "lapidary" []

  • One who cuts, polishes, or engraves gems. (noun)
  • A dealer in precious or semiprecious stones. (noun)
  • Of or relating to precious stones or the art of working with them. (adjective)
  • Engraved in stone. (adjective)
  • Marked by conciseness, precision, or refinement of expression: lapidary prose. (adjective)

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 "lapidary" in a sentence
  • "You develop a little internal monlogue characterizing whatever you see or do in lapidary detail."
  • "In consequence, there developed two varieties of wedge-writing: the one that may be termed lapidary, used for the stone inscriptions, the official historical records, and such legal documents as were prepared with especial care; the other cursive, occurring only on legal and commercial clay tablets, and becoming more frequent as we approach the latest period of Babylonian writing, which extends to within a few decades of our era."
  • "In consequence, there developed two varieties of wedge-writing: the one that may be termed lapidary, used for the stone inscriptions, the official historical records, and such legal documents as were prepared with especial care; the other cursive, occurring only on legal and commercial clay tablets, and becoming more frequent as we approach the latest period of"
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