*ebon*

n. The scapula. See Blade, 4. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ OE. debonere, OF. de bon aire, debonaire, of good descent or lineage, excellent, debonair, F. débonnaire debonair; de of (L. de) + bon good (L. bonus) + aire. See Air, and Bounty, and cf. Bonair. ] Characterized by courteousness, affability, or gentleness; of good appearance and manners; graceful; complaisant. [ 1913 Webster ]

Was never prince so meek and debonair. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OF. debonaireté, F. débonnaireté. ] Debonairness. [ Obs. ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. Courteously; elegantly. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The quality of being debonair; good humor; gentleness; courtesy. Sterne. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. Consisting of ebony. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Like ebony, especially in color; black; dark. [ 1913 Webster ]

Night, sable goddess! from her ebon throne. Young. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Ebony. [ Poetic ] “Framed of ebon and ivory.” Sir W. Scott. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who works in ebony. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Chem.) A hard, black variety of vulcanite. It may be cut and polished, and is used for many small articles, as combs and buttons, and for insulating material in electric apparatus. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Ebonized p. pr. & vb. n. Ebonizing. ] To make black, or stain black, in imitation of ebony; as, to ebonize wood. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. Ebonies [ F. ébène, L. ebenus, fr. Gr. &unr_;; prob. of Semitic origin; cf. Heb. hobnīm, pl. Cf. Ebon. ] A hard, heavy, and durable wood, which admits of a fine polish or gloss. The usual color is black, but it also occurs red or green. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ The finest black ebony is the heartwood of Diospyros reticulata, of the Mauritius. Other species of the same genus (D. Ebenum, Melanoxylon, etc.), furnish the ebony of the East Indies and Ceylon. The West Indian green ebony is from a leguminous tree (Brya Ebenus), and from the Excæcaria glandulosa. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Made of ebony, or resembling ebony; black; as, an ebony countenance. [ 1913 Webster ]

This ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling. Poe. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Same as Aitchbone. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The backbone. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Blood . . . lying cluttered about the ridgebone. Holland. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Anat.) The pubic bone. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Far.) A morbid growth or deposit of bony matter and at the sides of the coronet and coffin bone of a horse. J. H. Walsh. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Shoulder blade. [ Prov. Eng. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A firm, elastic substance resembling horn, taken from the upper jaw of the right whale; baleen. It is used as a stiffening in stays, fans, screens, and for various other purposes. See Baleen. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Whalebone is chiefly obtained from the bowhead, or Greenland, whale, the Biscay whale, and the Antarctic, or southern, whale. It is prepared for manufacture by being softened by boiling, and dyed black. [ 1913 Webster ]