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Webster 1913 Edition

Ruby

Ru′by

,
Noun.
;
pl.
Rubies
(#)
.
[F.
rubis
(cf. Pr.
robi
), LL.
rubinus
,
robinus
, fr. L.
rubeus
red, reddish, akin to
ruber
. See
Rouge
,
red
.]
1.
(Min.)
A precious stone of a carmine red color, sometimes verging to violet, or intermediate between carmine and hyacinth red. It is a red crystallized variety of corundum.
☞ Besides the true or Oriental ruby above defined, there are the balas ruby, or ruby spinel, a red variety of spinel, and the rock ruby, a red variety of garnet.
Of
rubies
, sapphires, and pearles white.
Chaucer.
2.
The color of a ruby; carmine red; a red tint.
The natural
ruby
of your cheeks.
Shakespeare
3.
That which has the color of the ruby, as red wine. Hence, a red blain or carbuncle.
4.
(Print.)
See
Agate
,
Noun.
, 2.
[Eng.]
5.
(Zool.)
Any species of South American humming birds of the genus
Clytolaema
. The males have a ruby-colored throat or breast.
Ruby of arsenic
,
Ruby of sulphur
(Chem.)
,
a glassy substance of a red color and a variable composition, but always consisting chiefly of the disulphide of arsenic; – called also
ruby sulphur
.
–
Ruby of zinc
(Min.)
,
zinc sulphide; the mineral zinc blende or sphalerite.
–
Ruby silver
(Min.)
,
red silver. See under
Red
.

Ru′by

,
Adj.
Ruby-colored; red;
as,
ruby
lips
.

Ru′by

,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Rubied
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Rubying
.]
To make red; to redden.
[R.]
Pope.

Webster 1828 Edition

Ruby

RU'BY

,
Noun.
[L. rubeo, to be red.]
1.
A precious stone; a mineral of a carmine red color, sometimes verging to violet, or intermediate between carmine and hyacinth red; but its parts vary in color, and hence it is called sapphire ruby or orange red, and by some vermeille or rubicel.
There are two kinds of ruby, the oriental or corundum, and the spinelle. The latter is distinguishable from the former by its color and crystallization.
The ruby is next in hardness and value to the diamond, and highly esteemed in jewelry.
2.
Redness; red color.
3.
Any thing red.
4.
A blain; a blotch; a carbuncle. [The ruby is said to be the stone called by Pliny a carbuncle.]
Ruby of arsenic or sulphur, is the realgar, or red combination of arsenic and sulphur.
Ruby of zink, is the red blend.
Rock ruby, the amethystizontes of the ancients, is the most value species of garnet.

RU'BY

,
Verb.
T.
To make red.

RU'BY

,
Adj.
Of the color of the ruby; red; as ruby lips.

Definition 2024

Ruby

Ruby

See also: ruby

English

Proper noun

Ruby

  1. A female given name.
    • 1992 Karen Kijewski, Kat's Cradle, page 76:
      And those are her two daughters, Opal and Ruby. Her husband, Joshua, named them. He said they were to be the jewels of his old age. She would never have thought of names like that. There wasn't an ounce of sentiment in her body.
  2. A dynamic, reflective, general-purpose object-oriented programming language developed in the 1990s.
  3. A city in Alaska.
  4. A ghost town in Arizona
  5. A town in South Carolina.
  6. A town in Wisconsin.
  7. A settlement on the island of Saint Croix in the United States Virgin Islands.
  8. A male given name

See also

Translations

Noun

Ruby

  1. (Cockney rhyming slang) A curry, short for Ruby Murray.
    We're going down the Indian for a Ruby - wanna join us?

Anagrams

ruby

ruby

See also: Ruby

English

A ruby (gem).

Noun

ruby ‎(countable and uncountable, plural rubies)

  1. A clear, deep, red variety of corundum, valued as a precious stone.
    • 2012 March 1, Lee A. Groat, “Gemstones”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 128:
      Although there are dozens of different types of gems, among the best known and most important are diamond, ruby and sapphire, emerald and other gem forms of the mineral beryl, chrysoberyl, tanzanite, tsavorite, topaz and jade.
  2. (obsolete) A red spinel.
  3. A deep red colour.
    ruby colour:    
    • Shakespeare
      the natural ruby of your cheeks
  4. (uncountable, printing, Britain, dated) The size of type between pearl and nonpareil, standardized as 5½-point.
  5. A ruby hummer, a South American hummingbird, Clytolaema rubricauda.
  6. A red bird-of-paradise, Paradisaea rubra.
Synonyms
  • (type size): (US) agate
Translations

See also

Adjective

ruby ‎(comparative more ruby, superlative most ruby)

  1. Of a deep red colour.
Translations

Derived terms

Verb

ruby ‎(third-person singular simple present rubies, present participle rubying, simple past and past participle rubied)

  1. (transitive, poetic) To make red; to redden.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Alexander Pope to this entry?)

Related terms

Etymology 2

From the British 5.5-point font Ruby, used for annotations in printed documents.

Noun

ruby ‎(plural rubies)

  1. A pronunciation guide written above or beside Chinese or Japanese characters.
The Japanese ruby characters (furigana) for Tokyo ("東京")
hiragana katakana romaji
とう きょう
東 京
トウ キョウ
東 京
tō kyō
東 京
Translations
Synonyms

See also

Anagrams

Etymology

From the precious stone.

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