[syn: ebon, ebony]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Ebony \Eb"on*y\, n.; pl. Ebonies. [F. ['e]b[`e]ne, L. ebenus,
fr. Gr. ?; prob. of Semitic origin; cf. Heb. hobn[imac]m, pl.
Cf. Ebon.]
A hard, heavy, and durable wood, which admits of a fine
polish or gloss. The usual color is black, but it also occurs
red or green.
[1913 Webster]
Note: The finest black ebony is the heartwood of Diospyros
reticulata, of the Mauritius. Other species of the
same genus (D. Ebenum, Melanoxylon, etc.), furnish
the ebony of the East Indies and Ceylon. The West
Indian green ebony is from a leguminous tree (Brya
Ebenus), and from the Exc[ae]caria glandulosa.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Ebony \Eb"on*y\, a.
Made of ebony, or resembling ebony; black; as, an ebony
countenance.
[1913 Webster]
This ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling.
--Poe.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
ebony
adj 1: of a very dark black [syn: ebon, ebony]
n 1: a very dark black [syn: coal black, ebony, jet black,
pitch black, sable, soot black]
2: hard dark-colored heartwood of the ebony tree; used in
cabinetwork and for piano keys
3: tropical tree of southern Asia having hard dark-colored
heartwood used in cabinetwork [syn: ebony, ebony tree,
Diospyros ebenum]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
191 Moby Thesaurus words for "ebony":
acacia, ailanthus, alder, alligator pear, allspice, almond, apple,
apricot, ash, aspen, atramentous, avocado, balsa, balsam, banyan,
bass, basswood, bay, bayberry, beamless, beech, beechwood,
betel palm, birch, black, black as coal, black as ebony,
black as ink, black as midnight, black as night, black race,
blackness, buckeye, burl, butternut, buttonwood, cacao, caliginous,
candleberry, cashew, cassia, catalpa, charcoal, cherry, chestnut,
chinquapin, cinnamon, citron, clove, coal, coal-black, coaly,
coconut, cork, cork oak, crow, cypress, dark, dark as night,
dark as pitch, darkling, darkness, darksome, deep black, dogwood,
ebon, eclipsed, elder, elm, eucalyptus, fig, fir, frankincense,
grapefruit, guava, gum, gumwood, hawthorn, hazel, hemlock, henna,
hickory, holly, hop tree, horse chestnut, ink, ink-black, inkiness,
inky, ironwood, jet, jetty, juniper, kumquat, laburnum, lancewood,
larch, laurel, lemon, lime, linden, litchi, litchi nut, locust,
logwood, magnolia, mahogany, mango, mangrove, maple, medlar,
melanism, midnight, mountain ash, mulberry, night, night-black,
night-clad, night-cloaked, night-dark, night-enshrouded,
night-filled, night-mantled, night-veiled, nigrescence, nigritude,
nigrous, nutmeg, oak, obfuscated, obscure, obscured, occulted,
olive, orange, palm, papaw, papaya, peach, pear, pecan, persimmon,
pine, pistachio, pitch, pitch-black, pitch-dark, pitchy, plane,
plum, pomegranate, poplar, quince, raffia palm, rain tree, raven,
raven-black, rayless, redwood, sable, sandalwood, sassafras, senna,
sequoia, sloe, sloe-black, sloe-colored, smoke, smut, soot, spruce,
starless, sumac, sunless, sycamore, tangerine, tar, tar-black,
tarry, teak, tenebrious, tenebrose, tenebrous, tulip tree,
unilluminated, unlighted, unlit, walnut, willow, witch hazel,
yew
Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary:
Ebony
a black, hard wood, brought by the merchants from India to Tyre
(Ezek. 27:15). It is the heart-wood, brought by Diospyros
ebenus, which grows in Ceylon and Southern India.