kerbstone

K5E1R1B3S1T1O1N1E1

noun

A paving stone that forms part of a kerb.

Similar
Scrabble 15

Meanings

nounkerbstone (plural kerbstones)

plural kerbstones · alternative US curbstone

  1. UKA paving stone that forms part of a kerb.

    Gabriel often saw him on the streets, playing on the curbstone with other boys his age.

    1953, James Baldwin, Go Tell It on the Mountain, New York, N.Y.: Knopf, →OCLC, part 2 (The Prayers of the Saints)
    1 more example

    You see this creature with her kerbstone English: the English that will keep her in the gutter to the end of her days. Well, sir, in three months I could pass that girl off as a duchess at an ambassador’s garden party.

    1912 (date written), [George] Bernard Shaw, “Pygmalion”, in Androcles and the Lion, Overruled, Pygmalion, London: Constable and Company, published 1916, →OCLC, Act I, page 115

Synonyms & antonyms

nouna paving stone forming part of a curb

Similar

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

  1. Englishkerb
  2. Proto-Indo-European*steh₂-
  3. Proto-Indo-European*steyh₂-
  4. Proto-Indo-European*stóyh₂nos
  5. Proto-Germanic*stainaz
  6. Proto-West Germanic*stain
  7. Old Englishstān
  8. Middle Englishston
  9. Englishstone
  10. Englishkerbstone

Exocentric compound of kerb + stone.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Portuguese lancil
  • lanciltype of paving stone
Cite this entry
APA

kerbstone. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/kerbstone

MLA

“kerbstone.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/kerbstone. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “kerbstone,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/kerbstone.

Source: kerbstone on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.