Also spelled thruff-stean and thruff-steans
noun
Meanings
-
1
noun
a flat horizontal tombstone or grave slab, especially in Scottish and northern English usage
The weathered through-stone lay flat above the old grave.
-
2
noun
a stone extending through the full thickness of a masonry wall
The mason tied the two faces of the wall with a through-stone.
Thesaurus
Synonyms
1
noun
· a flat horizontal tombstone...
table tombledger stonegrave slab
2
noun
· a stone extending through...
perpendbond stone
Word family
Forms
through-stones
Etymology
From Middle English throgh stone, a compound of through + stone. The funerary sense names a flat slab laid over a grave; the masonry sense names a stone carried through the full thickness of a wall. Northern dialect spellings include thruff-stean.