pewter
/ˈpjuːtə
/noun [mass noun]
1A grey alloy of tin with copper and antimony (formerly, tin and lead): these lockets are made of gold, silver, or pewter [as modifier]: pewter tankards...
- The reproduction industry did not focus attention on wrought iron as it did on pewter, brass and copper.
- Their enterprise really began to grow after they switched from silver to pewter, an alloy of lead and tin.
- Modern pewter is mostly tarnish-resistant alloys of about 90% tin with antimony or copper.
1.1Utensils made of pewter: the kitchen pewter...
- Over the centuries the techniques of making all forms of metal ware: pewter, copper, brass and bronze, iron and steel, have varied.
- Both the pewter and Sheffield Plate collections benefited from large bequests particularly that of Colonel Croft Lyons.
- Byard arranged for many shipments of antique furniture, brass, and pewter to be sent to Shelburne for Webb to consider for purchase.
1.2A shade of bluish or silver grey: [as modifier]: a pewter sky...
- It is sapphire against the pale silver wash of the sky and pewter against the amber of the towering hills that he adds in next.
- The redhead looked around, the slowly rising moon casting him all silver and pewter and bronze.
- There was no bridge, but flat ferry-rafts winched their way across it on heavy cables, and icy, slate-gray water gurgled under a dull, pewter sky.
Derivatives
pewterer
- Sending pewter to a trained engraver had been banned by the English pewterers ' guild as early as 1588 but continued to be allowed by continental guilds.
- For economic and technical reasons, the alloys used by coppersmiths, brassfounders, braziers, blacksmiths and pewterers have varied over time, and a knowledge of the alloys can provide definitive answers.
- Unlike more densely settled areas to the north, Virginia supported few pewterers, so the pewter plates and vessels most Virginians ate and drank from were shipped there from English ports.
Origin
Middle English: from Old French peutre, of unknown origin.