ag·ate /ˈægət/
瑪瑙,5.5點鉛字
A·gate adv. On the way; agoing; as, to be agate; to set the bells agate. [Obs.]
Ag·ate n.
1. Min. A semipellucid, uncrystallized variety of quartz, presenting various tints in the same specimen. Its colors are delicately arranged in stripes or bands, or blended in clouds.
Note: ☞ The fortification agate, or Scotch pebble, the moss agate, the clouded agate, etc., are familiar varieties.
2. Print. A kind of type, larger than pearl and smaller than nonpareil; in England called ruby.
Note: ☞ This line is printed in the type called agate.
3. A diminutive person; so called in allusion to the small figures cut in agate for rings and seals. [Obs.]
4. A tool used by gold-wire drawers, bookbinders, etc.; -- so called from the agate fixed in it for burnishing.
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agate
n : an impure form of quartz consisting of banded chalcedony;
used as a gemstone and for making mortars and pestles
Agate
(Heb. shebo), a precious stone in the breast-plate of the high
priest (Ex. 28:19; 39:12), the second in the third row. This may
be the agate properly so called, a semi-transparent crystallized
quartz, probably brought from Sheba, whence its name. In Isa.
54:12 and Ezek. 27:16, this word is the rendering of the Hebrew
cadcod, which means "ruddy," and denotes a variety of minutely
crystalline silica more or less in bands of different tints.
This word is from the Greek name of a stone found in the river
Achates in Sicily.