ivory

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a shade of white the color of bleached bones

   The wall was painted ivory.

2. 2
   noun

   a hard smooth ivory colored dentine that makes up most of the tusks of elephants and walruses

   The piano keys were made of ivory.

3. 3
   noun

   The hard white form of dentin which forms the tusks of elephants, walruses and other animals.

   “Leave the ivory!” he cried. “Leave the ivory! Dead men have no use for ivory!” Some of the Manyuema started to lay down their loads, but this was altogether too much for the avaricious Arabs.

4. 4
   noun

   The teeth.

   Ye forgot some o' yer ivories, didn't ye, on th' grass?

5. 5
   noun

   The keys of a piano; or, the white keys, as opposed to the black keys (ebonies).

   to tickle the ivories

6. 6
   noun

   A die (object bearing numbers, thrown in games of chance).

   c. 1846, Alexandre Dumas (translated by William Barrow), The Three Musketeers The triumphant Englishman did not give himself the trouble even to shake the dice; and, so sure was he of winning, that he threw the ivory on the table without looking.

7. 7
   adj

   Made of ivory.

   Men that I knew around Wapatomac didn't wear high, shiny plug hats, nor yeller spring overcoats, nor carry canes with ivory heads as big as a catboat's anchor, as you might say.

8. 8
   adj

   Resembling or having the colour of ivory.

   The walls and ceiling of this drawing-room in Montague Square are painted ivory.

Etymology

From Middle English yvory, ivorie, from Anglo-Norman ivurie, from Latin eboreus (“in or of ivory”) adjective of ebur (“ivory”) (genitive eboris), from Demotic Egyptian yb (“ivory, Elephantine”) (compare Coptic ⲓⲏⲃ (iēb, “Elephantine”)), from Egyptian ꜣbw (“elephant, ivory, Elephantine”), from Proto-Afroasiatic *leb-. Displaced native Old English elpendbān (literally “elephant bone”).