marble

plural marbles

1. uncountablegeographyA metamorphic rock of crystalline limestone.First known use 12th c.

   Open thy marble jaws, O tomb / And hide me, earth, in thy dark womb.

   1751, George Frideric Handel, Thomas Morell (librettist), Jephtha

2. countablegamesA small ball used in games, originally of marble but now usually of glass or ceramic.First known use 17th c.
3. countablein pluraluncountablearchaeologyStatues made from marble.First known use 17th c.

   The Elgin Marbles were originally part of the temple of the Parthenon.

   1 more example

   [I]t was a portrait of the Library, though not strictly correct as to its contents, since all the best of the marbles displayed in various parts of the house were brought into the painting by the artist, who made it up into a picturesque composition according to his own taste.

   1828, JT Smith, Nollekens and His Times, Century Hutchinson, published 1986, page 164

4. countableuncountableThe marbling in meat.

   The marble is graded using the Australian system.

present singular third person marbles · participle present marbling · participle past marbled · past marbled

1. transitiveTo cause (something to have) the streaked or swirled appearance of certain types of marble, for example by mixing viscous ingredients incompletely, or by applying paint or other colorants unevenly.

   In the operation of marbling the edges of the books, [...]

   1899, Thirteenth Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor, volume 1, page 106

   1 more example

   The small clouds which chequered the sky, as they passed along, spread their flitting shadows on the distant mountains, and seemed to marble them; a beauty which I do not recollect has struck any painter.

   1774, William Hutchinson, An excursion to the lakes in Westmoreland and Cumberland, August, 1773, page 29

   Synonyms: marbleize

2. intransitiveTo get or have the streaked or swirled appearance of certain types of marble, for example due to the incomplete mixing of viscous ingredients, or the uneven application of paint or other colorants.

   Scent the entire batch and then color half with the blue colorant. Pour both parts back into your soap pot. Do not stir. Pour in a circular motion into a block mold. The pouring action will cause the soap to marble.

   2007, Alicia Grosso, The Everything Soapmaking Book: Recipes and Techniques, page 125

3. transitiveTo cause meat, usually beef, pork, or lamb, to be interlaced with fat so that its appearance resembles that of marble.

   Their flesh is soft (tender), and they throw a portion of their fat among the lean so as to marble it. The beef is of a better quality and they take on fat much easier.

   1848, Samuel D. Martin, in a letter to the Albany Cultivator, quoted in the Fourteenth Annual Report of the Ohio State Board of Agriculture (for the year 1859; published 1860), page 157

   2 more examples

   The Merino sheep is likely to put his weight largely into tallow around the stomach, intestines and on his kidneys, instead of mixing fairly with the meat, instead of marbling the meat.

   1904, Annual Report of the Wisconsin State Board of Agriculture for the year 1903, page 309

   Either by forcing the lardoon out with a plunger, by pushing it with a knife point, or by trailing it behind the needle, the cook artificially marbles the meat. For French cooks intent on larding, traditionally, the choice fat was the lard gras (pork fat).

   2004, Mary Ellen Snodgrass, Encyclopedia of kitchen history, page 684

   Synonyms: marbleize

4. intransitiveespecially beefTo become interlaced with fat; (of fat) to interlace through meat.

   As we feed these cattle corn their meat marbles. By marbling, I mean the red meat cells are surrounded with fat

   1974, Rising cost of meat: hearings before the Subcommittee on Domestic Marketing and Consumer Relations

   3 more examples

   We've gone mostly to black bulls — Angus bulls because today the packers like black cattle. They seem to marble better.

   1999, Kathleen Jo Ryan, Deep in the heart of Texas: Texas ranchers in their own words, page 99

   ... claims probably stem from people having eaten beef from older, thinner animals which had rarely had enough excess energy in their diet to cause the meat to marble.

   1978, Theodore Carroll Byerly, The role of ruminants in support of man

   The exercising of the cattle causes the fat to marble right through the animal — and much of the flavour is found in the fat.

   1972, Sondra Gotlieb, The Gourmet’s Canada, page 129

5. broadlyfigurativelyTo lace or be laced throughout.

   Was he the reason for the bitterness that seemed to marble her character?

   1993, Susan Napier, Winter of Dreams, page 52

   1 more example

   'Nobody who has been to war ever talks about it,' he says. But then he does talk, and generously, mining his memory and following the vein of a life marbled with experience: 'I mean, I am in my nineties; […]'

   2004, Scott Bevan, Battle Lines: Australian Artists at War

comparative more marble · superlative most marble

1. Made of, or resembling, marble.

   marble paper

   1 more example

   a marble mantel

2. figurativelyCold; hard; unfeeling.

   a marble heart

plural Marbles

1. A surname.
2. A statutory town in Gunnison County, Colorado.