gem

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a crystalline rock that can be cut and polished for jewelry

   I had the gem set in a ring for my spouse.

2. 2
   noun

   A precious stone, usually of substantial monetary value or prized for its beauty or shine.

   And on her head she wore a tyre of gold, Adornd with gemmes and owches wondrous fayre, Whose passing price vneath was to be told;

3. 3
   noun

   Any precious or highly valued thing or person.

   She's an absolute gem.

4. 4
   noun

   Anything of small size, or expressed within brief limits, which is regarded as a gem on account of its beauty or value, such as a small picture, a verse of poetry, or an epigram.

   a gem of wit

5. 5
   noun

   A gemma or leaf bud.

   c. 1668, John Denham (translator), Of Old Age by Cato the Elder, Part 3, in Poems and Translations, with The Sophy, London: H. Herringman, 4th edition, 1773, p. 35, Then from the Joynts of thy prolifick Stemm A swelling Knot is raised (call’d a Gemm)

6. 6
   noun

   A strong, dominating pitching performance.

   2025, Associated Press, Crochet gets 1st career shutout and complete game as Red Sox beat Rays for 9th straight win by Associated Press, He didn’t walk a batter in his 100-pitch gem

7. 7
   verb

   To adorn with, or as if with, gems.

   [T]he fair star / That gems the glittering coronet of morn, / Sheds not a light so mild, so powerful, / As that which, bursting from the Fairy's form, / Spread a purpureal halo round the scene, / Yet with an undulating motion, / Swayed to her outline gracefully.

8. 8
   noun

   a precious or semiprecious stone incorporated into a piece of jewelry

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English gemme, gimme, yimme, ȝimme, from Old English ġimm, from Proto-West Germanic *gimmu (“gem”) and Old French gemme (“gem”), both from Latin gemma (“a swelling bud; jewel, gem”). Doublet of gemma and Gemma.