whetstone

From Middle English whestone, whetston, whetesston, from Old English hwetstān, from Proto-West Germanic *hwattjastain (“whetstone”). Equivalent to whet (“to sharpen”) +‎ stone.

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈwɛtˌstoʊn/, [ˈwɛʔˌstoʊn]
  • (US) IPA^(key): /ˈʍɛtˌstoʊn/, [ˈʍɛʔˌstoʊn] (without wine-whine merger)
• (UK) IPA^(key): /wɛtstəʊn/

  • Audio (US, with merger)

    (file)

  • Audio (US, without merger)

    (file)

whetstone (plural whetstones)

1. A sharpening stone; a hard stone or piece of synthetically bonded hard minerals that has been formed with at least one flat surface, used to sharpen or hone an edged tool.
   • c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 186, column 2, line 192:

     […] for alwaies the dulneſſe of the foole, is the whetstone of the wits.

   • 1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, Jacob’s Room, Richmond, London: […] Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished London: The Hogarth Press, 1960, →OCLC:

     It was as if a stone were ground to dust; as if white sparks flew from a livid whetstone, which was his spine; as if the switchback railway, having swooped to the depths, fell, fell, fell.

2. (figurative) A stimulant.
3. (computing) Alternative letter-case form of Whetstone (“benchmark”)

• stone
• whet

whetstone (third-person singular simple present whetstones, present participle whetstoning, simple past and past participle whetstoned)

1. (transitive) To sharpen with a whetstone.

• grind, grindstone
• hone