freestone

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   stone, especially sandstone or limestone, that can be cut and worked easily in any direction

   The barracks were built from blocks of pale freestone.

2. 2
   noun

   a stone fruit whose flesh separates easily from the pit

   This freestone peach can be sliced without flesh clinging to the pit.

3. 3
   adj

   describing a fruit whose pit separates easily from the flesh

   The orchard grows freestone varieties for preserving.

A compound of free + stone. Building freestone is free to be cut in any direction without splitting along a grain; in fruit, the stone or pit comes free from the surrounding flesh. The two technical senses developed from the same transparent image.

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