alabaster

plural alabasters · alternative alabastre · alternative alablaster

1. uncountableusuallyA fine-grained white or lightly-tinted variety of gypsum, used ornamentally.

   Why ſhould a man whoſe bloud is warme within, Sit like his Grandſire, cut in Alabaſter?

   c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 163, lines 89–90

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   Nor was the flame dissevered from its ribbon But like a radiant fillet ran along So that fire seemed it behind alabaster.

   1867, Dante Alghieri, “Paradiso”, in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, transl., The Divine Comedy, Canto XV, lines 22–23

   One of the striking relics found at the tomb, was a Canopic portrait head of Queen Tii, made entirely of alabaster except the eyes and eyebrows, which were inlaid lapis lazuli and osidian.

   1915 May 15, “Egyptian Antiquities for Metropolitan”, in The New York Times (PDF), archived from the original on 14 Sep 2015

2. historicaluncountableusuallyA variety of calcite, translucent and sometimes banded.
3. uncountableusuallyA sculpture executed in alabaster.

   His alabasters are certainly very estimable; but those to whom we owe them were not skilled virtuosi, and if they acquitted themselves of their task honourably, they only produced ordinary work.

   2021 March 27, G. Maspero, Egyptian Art, Otbebookpublishing, →ISBN

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   Beautiful oviform vases and covers, jars and covers with flowers and foliage, Italian alabasters, copies of the antique, were ranged side by side with Chinese ginger jars and common preserve bottles of birds'eggs[…]

   1883, W. H. Florio Hutchisson, Pen and Pencil Sketches: Being Reminiscences During Eighteen Years' Residence in Bengal, page 247

4. uncountableusuallyAn off-white color, like that of alabaster.

alternative alabastre · alternative alablaster

1. not comparableMade of alabaster.

   The crown is stored in an alabaster box with an onyx handle and a gold lock.

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   And being in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Mark 14:3

   An enameled miniature of Christ is set in the center of a jeweled alabaster paten, the plate that holds the bread during Communion services.

   1980, Colin Thubron, Seafarers: The Venetians, page 41

2. not comparableResembling alabaster; white, pale, smooth, translucent.

   An ominous alabaster fog settled in the valley.

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   With more than admiration he admir’d Her azure veins, her alabaster skin, Her coral lips, her snow-white dimpled chin.

   1594, William Shakespeare, Lucrece (First Quarto), London: […] Richard Field, for Iohn Harrison, […], →OCLC, lines 418-420

   Safe in their alabaster chambers Untouched by morning, untouched by noon Sleep the meek members of the resurrection, Rafters of satin, and roof of stone.

   a. 1887 (date written), Emily Dickinson, “[Book IV.—Time and Eternity] Safe in Their Alabaster Chambers”, in Mabel Loomis Todd and T[homas] W[entworth] Higginson, editors, Poems, First Series, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, published 1890, →OCLC, page 113

   Thine alabaster cities gleam Undimmed by human tears!

   1895, “America the Beautiful”, Katharine Lee Bates (lyrics), Samuel A. Ward (music)

   Synonyms: alabastrine

1. A city in Shelby County, Alabama, United States.