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("vr), n.; pl. Ivories (). [OE. ivori, F. ivoire, fr. L. eboreus made of ivory, fr. ebur, eboris, ivory, cf. Skr. ibha elephant. Cf. Eburnean.] 1. The hard, white, opaque, fine-grained substance constituting the tusks of the elephant. It is a variety of dentine, characterized by the minuteness and close arrangement of the tubes, as also by their double flexure. It is used in manufacturing articles of ornament or utility. Ivory is the name commercially given not only to the substance constituting the tusks of the elephant, but also to that of the tusks of the hippopotamus and walrus, the hornlike tusk of the narwhal, etc. 2. The tusks themselves of the elephant, etc. 3. Any carving executed in ivory. Mollett. 4. pl. Teeth; as, to show one's ivories. [Slang] Ivory black. See under Black, n. Ivory gull (Zol.), a white Arctic gull (Larus eburneus). Ivory nut (Bot.), the nut of a species of palm, the Phytephas macroarpa, often as large as a hen's egg. When young the see スポンサード リンク
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