from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
noun A paving stone, especially one that is naturally rounded.
from The Century Dictionary.
noun A cobble or rounded stone; especially, such a stone used in paving.
To pave with cobblestones.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
noun A large pebble; a rounded stone not too large to be handled; a small boulder; -- used for paving streets and for other purposes.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
noun A rounded stone from a river bed, fit for use as ballast in ships and for paving roads.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
verb pave with cobblestones
noun rectangular paving stone with curved top; once used to make roads
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[Middle English cobelston : obsolete cobel, probably diminutive of cob, round object; see cob + Middle English ston, stone, stone; see stone.]
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From Middle English kobilstane, from cobble (probably a diminutive of one of various words cob, presumed to stem from a Proto-Germanic root kubb- "something rounded") + Old English stan ("stone")
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word cobblestone.
Examples
"If you have not had your fill of ghost-ridden heroes, needy orphans, and foggy nights in cobblestone streets, this sequel - with its breakneck plot, colorful characters, and the reappearance of Scrooge and the Cratchits - will fill the bill."
In Russian, the word for cobblestone is "bulyzhnik," a lovely roundish word that fits nicely in the hand of a revolutionary. In Slovene, the humble cobblestone is the more angular "tlakovec" (the final "c" is pronounced as "ts"), a word that still seems to carry the echoes of horse hooves and carriage wheels.
jennarenn commented on the word cobblestone
These are downright obnoxious when they're too rounded; I can see why they went out of fashion.
August 20, 2007
librarymistress commented on the word cobblestone
slow down, you move too fast
you got to make the morning last
just kicking down the cobble stones...
(Simon & Garfunkel)
September 25, 2007
rolig commented on the word cobblestone
In Russian, the word for cobblestone is "bulyzhnik," a lovely roundish word that fits nicely in the hand of a revolutionary. In Slovene, the humble cobblestone is the more angular "tlakovec" (the final "c" is pronounced as "ts"), a word that still seems to carry the echoes of horse hooves and carriage wheels.
November 26, 2007
yarb commented on the word cobblestone
Great comment, rolig. I love bulyzhnik!
November 27, 2007