Alabaster is a white stone that is used for making statues, vases, and ornaments.
2. adjective [usually ADJECTIVE noun]
If you say that someone has alabaster skin, you mean that their skin is very beautiful because it is so white and smooth.
[literary]
She wore a fine chain about her alabaster neck.
alabaster in British English
(ˈæləˌbɑːstə, -ˌbæstə)
noun
1.
a fine-grained usually white, opaque, or translucent variety of gypsum used for statues, vases, etc
2.
a variety of hard semitranslucent calcite, often banded like marble
adjective
3.
of or resembling alabaster
Derived forms
alabastrine (ˌalaˈbastrine)
adjective
Word origin
C14: from Old French alabastre, from Latin alabaster, from Greek alabastros
alabaster in American English
(ˈæləˌbæstər)
noun
1.
a translucent, whitish, fine-grained variety of gypsum, used for statues, vases,etc.
2.
a variety of calcite found esp. in stalactites and stalagmites: it is sometimes streaked or mottled like marble
adjective
3.
of or like alabaster; esp., smooth and white
Derived forms
alabastrine (ˌalaˈbastrine) (ˈæləˈbæstrɪn)
adjective
Word origin
ME < OFr alabastre < L alabaster < Gr alabastros, earlier alabastos, vase for perfumes (often made of alabaster), prob. < Egypt *ʼa-labaste, vessel of (the goddess) Bast
Examples of 'alabaster' in a sentence
alabaster
Nevertheless, Jon still sent us a lovely alabaster lamp for our wedding, even though Ed hadn't invited him.
Isabel Wolff RESCUING ROSE (2002)
The downtown buildings were brown and velvet grey against the yellow skin of morning; the bridges shimmered in alabaster.
McCorquodale, Robin DANSVILLE (2002)
I frantically searched for something I could defend myself with: a marble bookend perhaps, or an umbrella, or my alabaster bedside lamp.
Isabel Wolff RESCUING ROSE (2002)
Between the dunes dipped a valley of alabaster, crossed by the windswept shadow of a woman.