freestonen.adj.
/ˈfriːstəʊn/, U.S. /ˈfriˌstoʊn/ A. n.
1.
a. Stone that can be sawn in any direction and readily shaped with a chisel, such as fine-grained sandstone or limestone.
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society > occupation and work > materials > raw material > stone or rock > [noun] > easily worked sandstone or limestone
freestonec1300
franche pierc1450
c1300 St. Kenelm (Laud) 326 in C. Horstmann Early S.-Eng. Legendary (1887) 354 (MED) A fair welle þare sprong op..wel faire i-heoled with freo ston.
1378 in J. C. Tingey Rec. City of Norwich (1910) II. 234 (MED) j caretta plena de frestone iiij d.
1424 in F. J. Furnivall Fifty Earliest Eng. Wills (1882) 59 Paied to Fairchild, quarriour, xiijs. and iiijd. for freestone.
1463 in S. Tymms Wills & Inventories Bury St. Edmunds (1850) 37 An ymage of our lady..in an howsyng of free stoon.
1523 J. Fitzherbert Bk. Surueyeng xvii. f. 31 Those may be taken as mynes of tynne, leed, ore, cole, yronstonne, freston, mylne stones.
1577 W. Harrison Descr. Eng. (1877) ii. iii. i. 71 Houses builded..for the most part of hard freestone.
1640 in J. Nicholson Minute Bk. War Comm. Covenanters Kirkcudbright 19 Oct. (1855) 67 He hes use for certaine friestane for building.
1662 B. Gerbier Brief Disc. Princ. Building 24 As for Free-stone, Portland Stone works well.
a1669 ( Indenture Fotheringay in Dugdale's Monasticon Anglicanum (1846) VI. 1414/1 All the inner side of rough stone, except..the pillars and chapetrels that the arches and pendants shall rest upon, which shal be altogedir of free-stone wroght trewly.
1710 R. Sibbald Hist. Fife & Kinross iii. 64 There are many Quarries of good Stone in this Shire, I mean of free Stone; that at Dalgatie upon the Coast is the best.
1773 P. Brydone Tour Sicily & Malta I. xv. 318 The streets..are all paved with white free-stone.
1796 R. Kirwan Elements Mineral. (ed. 2) II. 18 The alluminous ore of Whitby is sometimes a grey Freestone.
1833 C. F. Hoffman Let. 8 Nov. in Winter in West (1835) I. 79 A species of yellow freestone..which, for elegance as a building-material, is not surpassed by marble itself.
1878 F. S. Williams Midland Railway (ed. 4) 367 The handsome embattled tower..is chequered with flint and freestone.
1924 Geogr. Rev. 14 226 Excavated, or rock-cut, dwellings are found in the more uniform sandstones, especially those approaching freestone in character.
1954 J. F. Kirkaldy Gen. Princ. Geol. xix. 289 Portland stone, perhaps the most widely used of building stones, is a ‘freestone’.
2001 R. Kenna Glasgow Pub Compan. (ed. 2) 57 Victorian and Edwardian Glasgow was truly ‘no mean city’: the building materials were freestone and granite.
b. A slab or piece of freestone.
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society > occupation and work > materials > raw material > stone or rock > [noun] > easily worked sandstone or limestone > piece of
freestone1425
1425 in R. W. Chambers & M. Daunt Bk. London Eng. (1931) 153 (MED) To Goldryng, Mason, for ij frestones..paid for j Freston to þe side of þe seide dore.
1460–1 in E. Hobhouse Church-wardens' Accts. (1890) 102 (MED) For frestonys, xviij s.
?a1500 Nominale (Yale Beinecke 594) in T. Wright & R. P. Wülcker Anglo-Saxon & Old Eng. Vocab. (1884) I. 768/42 Hec timeria, a frestone.
1626 F. Bacon Sylua Syluarum §570 Toads have been found in the middle of a Freestone.
1640 in J. Nicholson Minute Bk. War Comm. Covenanters Kirkcudbright (1855) 67 The friestanes of the hows.
1712 T. Hearne Remarks & Coll. (1889) III. 412 A White Free Stone is laid over Mr. Wm. Joyner's Grave.
1742 G. Leoni tr. A. Palladio Architecture I. 9 Coffer-work..made of two rows of free Stones..bound together with other crossing-rows.
1821 J. Clare Let. 17 May (1985) 191 His monument is a little round free stone by the side of the altar.
1843 Times 26 Sept. 7/2 George Slee,..in excavating for sand,..came to a heap of cobble and freestones.
1903 W. Besant London in Time of Stuarts 13 At the same time the laying down of broad freestones instead of the old cobbles was commenced.
2004 D. Huff in M. Stausberg Zoroastrian Rituals in Context 615 The walls are not built of layers of freestones, but composed of comparatively thin but large slabs.
2. A variety of peach or other stone fruit in which the flesh parts freely from the stone when ripe.
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the world > food and drink > food > fruit and vegetables > fruit or a fruit > stone fruit > [noun] > peach > free-stone peach
freestone1807
the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular food plant or plant product > particular types of fruit > [noun] > stone fruit > peach > types of peach
presse1604
avant-peach1611
man peach1629
nutmeg1629
Roman peach1629
muscat1664
Rambouillet1664
winter peach1664
rumbullion1670
Orleans1674
pavie1675
Magdalenea1678
minion1691
admirable1693
maudlin1699
clingstone1705
nipple peach1719
rareripe1722
melter1766
vanguard1786
freestone1807
cling1845
lemon cling1848
peregrine1903
doughnut peach1993
1807 T. Matlack Let. 25 Feb. in T. Jefferson Garden Bk. (1999) 335 The mammoth peach—large, perfectly beautiful and ripens tender—a clingstone... The Olmixon freestone—a fine peach—I suppose the same as the Madeira peach.
1866 J. Lindley & T. Moore Treasury Bot. I. 55/1 Three principal varieties of the Peach exist—clingstones, melters or freestones, and nectarines.
1880 Sat. Rev. 612 The division of peaches and nectarines into freestones and clingstones.
1925 B. D. Drain Essent. Systematic Pomology vi. 88 Good commercial varieties of peaches (except for canning) should be freestones.
1963 Appl. Statist. 12 112 A small flavour preference test on different varieties (clingstone, freestone and white) of canned peach.
2001 Org. Gardening July–Aug. 46/1 The flesh of a freestone separates easily from the pit, making this variety easier to use for cooking or canning.
B. adj.
1. Made of or faced with freestone (sense A. 1a).
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1652 Mercurius Democritus No. 11. 84 There is this week a Free-stone Brick wall to be made round about the Thames.
1653 J. Howell German Diet sig. Rr2 The Court was, turnd to fair brick or free-stone-houses.
1666 A. Wood Life & Times (1892) II. 72 The larg free-stone house in Slaying Lane in St. Aldate's parish.
1726 N. Amhurst Terræ-filius (ed. 2) xliv. 235 What! are there no living ornaments in Oxford? Are its inanimate, its free~stone ones its greatest glory?
1742 New & Compl. Surv. London II. ii. iii. §4. 795/2 Out of this Square is a handsome Free-Stone Passage, called Smith's Rents.
1766 J. Entick Surv. London in New Hist. London IV. 357 A free-stone passage.
1799 G. Heath New Bristol Guide x. 90 Between two uniform rows of elegant freestone houses, is planned a spacious Mall.
1858 Times 20 Apr. 16/5 (advt.) The mansion is a substantial freestone building of handsome exterior appearance.
1928 Bull. Business Hist. Soc. 2 9 He finds the ancient splendor of the port inscribed in its fine freestone houses, built by the ship-owners.
1983 Anatolian Stud. 33 231 The excavations..were concentrated on the large freestone building on the Meydan kiran in the village on the east bank of the river.
2.
a. U.S. regional. Of water: (relatively) free of minerals; = soft adj. 25.Freestone cave is recorded from 1727, apparently as the place name of a cave not containing saltpetre deposits: see Amer. Speech (1940) 15 263/2.
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the world > matter > liquid > water > [adjective] > properties or characteristics of water > not containing mineral
soft1691
unmineralized1757
freestone1805
1805 M. Lewis in Jrnls. Lewis & Clark Exped. (1987) IV. 426 We passed a number of fine bold springs;..they wer[e] very cold and freestone water.
1853 Amer. Jrnl. Med. Sci. 25 160 The water used for drinking and cooking throughout this region is usually ‘limestone water’... In Hickman, Fulton Co., the drinking-water is freestone.
1934 H. Vines Green Thicket World 70 The men..drank mellow whiskey and good freestone water.
1980 F. L. Owsley in E. Magdol & J. L. Wakelyn Southern Common People 24 Washing and cooking in such water was too much for those accustomed to soft, freestone water.
b. Chiefly North American Angling. Designating a river or stream fed primarily by snow melt or rainwater rather than groundwater, and characterized by low levels of minerals and dramatic seasonal variations in temperature and water level.
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1977 N.Y. Times 25 Jan. 46/5 As one who received his early fly-fishing training on the brawling, tumbling, widely fluctuating freestone rivers of New England, I never failed to be astonished by the productivity of a limestone stream.
1995 Conservationist Feb. 37/1 The seasons, rocks, fish, fauna and water quality..are nearly the same as those found on any small freestone brook trout stream in the Empire State.
2007 Edmonton (Alberta) Jrnl. (Nexis) 10 July a13 Calgary is blessed in part by the geography of a flat valley, as well as a clear, freestone river full of silvery trout.
3. Designating a variety of peach or other stone fruit that is a freestone (sense A. 2).
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular food plant or plant product > particular types of fruit > [adjective] > of types of stone-fruit
Persic1599
masculine1629
plummy1724
freestone1828
cling1845
ber1860
1828 Gardener's Mag. 3 466 Prince's Red Rare Ripe. A very fine freestone peach.
1872 M. S. De Vere Americanisms 421 Americans distinguish Free-stone Peaches, in which the stones lie loose, while in Cling-stones they adhere firmly to the flesh of the fruit.
1901 F. A. Waugh Plums & Plum Cult. 355 In those states where the Americana plums are largely grown, the freestone varieties are selected.
1933 T. N. Morris Princ. Fruit Preserv. 171 Peaches for drying should preferably be of the free stone type, of large size and high sugar content.
1989 Horticulture Oct. 47/1 The earliest peaches aren't quite as flavorful as the later-ripening free-stone cultivars.
2001 Guardian 27 July ii. 7/5 The peche platte is a white fleshed fruit [sc. a peach] of the freestone variety.
Compounds
C1. General attributive (in sense A. 1).
freestone quarry n.
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1653 T. Urquhart Logopandecteision vi. 35 Of the hitting on which I doubt as little, as of the Lime and Free-stone Quarries hard at my house of late found out.
1776 A. Smith Inq. Wealth of Nations I. i. xi. 220 The value of a free-stone quarry ..will..increase. View more context for this quotation
1827 Lancet 13 Jan. 481/2 In working a freestone quarry of calcaire, the side of the present cavern was accidentally laid open.
1955 Jrnl. Soc. Archit. Historians 14 16/2 From a freestone quarry on the Marsh Estate..stone was obtained for the ranch house.
C2.
freestone-coloured adj. now rare of the colour of freestone.
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a1616 W. Shakespeare As you like It (1623) iv. iii. 26 She has..A freestone coloured hand. View more context for this quotation
1854 C. L. Hentz Planter's Northern Bride I. i. 17 The court-house..with its freestone-coloured wall and lofty cupola.
1889 G. B. Shaw in Star 1 Aug. 2/5 Imagine..finding yourself in a dim freestone-colored auditorium, reminding you strongly of a lecture theatre.
freestone mason n. = Freemason n. 1.
ΚΠ
1649 Perfect Diurnall No. 312 2674 Our reparations go on reasonable well, we have 100 men a day clensing our Trenches, we have about 16 or 17 Free-stone Masons.
1749 J. Wood Ess. Descr. Bath (ed. 2) II. iv. xi. 433 The Free Stone of the whole Obelisk, together with the Workmanship of it by the Free Stone Masons, would have cost no more than [etc.].
1862 Jurist 8 Mar. 140/1 John Dando, Roath, near Cardiff, Glamorganshire, freestone mason.
1989 S. Ridgeway in A. W. Foster & J. R. Blau Art & Society xi. 224 The history of the arts is rich with examples of collaboration: between the hardhewer and freestone mason, between the artist and the printmaker, between the singer and composer.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2008; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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