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/ˈægət/ Listen

noun

Agate n.

(Min.) A semipellucid, uncrystallized variety of quartz, presenting various tints in the same specimen. Its colors are delicately arranged in stripes or bands, or blended in clouds. Note: The fortification agate, or Scotch pebble, the moss agate, the clouded agate, etc., are familiar varieties.

(Print.) A kind of type, larger than pearl and smaller than nonpareil; in England called ruby. Note: This line is printed in the type called agate.

A diminutive person; so called in allusion to the small figures cut in agate for rings and seals. (Obs.)

A tool used by gold-wire drawers, bookbinders, etc.; so called from the agate fixed in it for burnishing.

adverb

Agate adv. On the way; agoing; as, to be agate; to set the bells agate. (Obs.)

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Etymology of 'Agate'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Agate" Quotes from Famous Books

... I must explain the significance and virtue of these stones. I shall be telling you nothing new when I say that Aristotle, Pliny, all the sages of antiquity, attributed medical and divine virtues to them. According to the pagans, agate and carnelian stimulate, topaz consoles, jasper cures languor, hyacinth drives away insomnia, turquoise prevents falls or lightens the shock, amethyst ...

— La-bas • J. K. Huysmans

... and surveyed his companion. There seemed just a shade of doubt in his eyes. They were remarkably large and yellowish gray, those eyes of Joe Pollard, and now and again when he grew thoughtful they became like clouded agate. They had that color now as he gazed at ...

— Black Jack • Max Brand

... brilliant window niche, How statue-like I see thee stand, The agate lamp within thy hand! Ah, Psyche, from the regions which ...

— Edgar Allan Poe's Complete Poetical Works • Edgar Allan Poe

... yet unknown To Roman fashions. First uprose the hall Like to a fane which this corrupted age Could scarcely rear: the lofty ceiling shone With richest tracery, the beams were bound In golden coverings; no scant veneer Lay on its walls, but built in solid blocks Of marble, gleamed the palace. Agate stood In sturdy columns, bearing up the roof; Onyx and porphyry on the spacious floor Were trodden 'neath the foot; the mighty gates Of Maroe's throughout were formed, He mere adornment; ivory clothed the hall, And fixed upon the doors with ...

— Pharsalia; Dramatic Episodes of the Civil Wars • Lucan

... two violets and a paper with Titianus written on it. The bit of music on the grass has Greek letters. Dancing figures are in the middle of the picture. The fauns stagger under the dark trees, carrying great sumptuous vases of agate and gold. Silenus is asleep on a sunny hill at a distance, and the white sails of the ship with Theseus gleam on the deep-blue sea. There is another called an Offering to Fecundity. It is a crowd of most lovely baby boys, wonderfully painted, frolicking ...

— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 25, November, 1859 • Various

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