Adamant

6 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Adamant \Ad"a*mant\ ([a^]d"[.a]*m[a^]nt), n. [OE. adamaunt,
     adamant, diamond, magnet, OF. adamant, L. adamas, adamantis,
     the hardest metal, fr. Gr. 'ada`mas, -antos; 'a priv. +
     dama^,n to tame, subdue. In OE., from confusion with L.
     adamare to love, be attached to, the word meant also magnet,
     as in OF. and LL. See {Diamond}, {Tame}.]


     1. A stone imagined by some to be of impenetrable hardness; a
        name given to the diamond and other substances of extreme
        hardness; but in modern mineralogy it has no technical
        signification. It is now a rhetorical or poetical name for
        the embodiment of impenetrable hardness.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Opposed the rocky orb
              Of tenfold adamant, his ample shield. --Milton.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Lodestone; magnet. [Obs.] "A great adamant of
        acquaintance." --Bacon.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              As true to thee as steel to adamant.  --Greene.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  adamant
       adj : not capable of being swayed or diverted from a course;
             unsusceptible to persuasion; "he is adamant in his
             refusal to change his mind"; "Cynthia was inexorable;
             she would have none of him"- W.Churchill; "an
             intransigent conservative opposed to every liberal
             tendancy" [syn: {adamantine}, {inexorable}, {intransigent}]
       n : very hard native crystalline carbon valued as a gem [syn: {diamond}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  75 Moby Thesaurus words for "adamant":
     adamantine, at a standstill, cast-iron, dour, firm, flintlike,
     flinty, frozen, granitelike, granitic, grim, hard, hard-core,
     immobile, immotile, immotive, immovable, immutable, implacable,
     impliable, inductile, inelastic, inexorable, inextensible,
     inextensile, inextensional, inflexible, intractable, intractile,
     intransigent, iron, irreconcilable, irremovable, irresilient,
     lithic, marblelike, nonelastic, nonstretchable, obdurate, pat,
     petrified, petrogenic, relentless, rigid, rigorous, rock,
     rock-ribbed, slaty, standpat, stationary, steely, stern, stiff,
     stone, stubborn, unaffected, unalterable, unbending, unchangeable,
     uncompromising, unextendible, unextensible, unflexible, ungiving,
     unlimber, unmalleable, unmovable, unmoved, unmoving, unpliable,
     unpliant, unrelenting, unswayable, untractable, unyielding
  
  

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Adamant
     (Heb. shamir), Ezek. 3:9. The Greek word adamas means diamond.
     This stone is not referred to, but corundum or some kind of hard
     steel. It is an emblem of firmness in resisting adversaries of
     the truth (Zech. 7:12), and of hard-heartedness against the
     truth (Jer. 17:1).
     

From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:

  ADAMANT, n.  A mineral frequently found beneath a corset.  Soluble in
  solicitate of gold.
  
  

From U.S. Gazetteer (1990) [gazetteer]:

  Adamant, VT
    Zip code(s): 05640