alabaster

noun

1. (uncountable, usually)A 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?”

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

   “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.”

2. (historical, uncountable, usually)A variety of calcite, translucent and sometimes banded.
3. (uncountable, usually)A sculpture executed in alabaster.

   “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[…]”

   “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.”

4. (uncountable, usually)An off-white color, like that of alabaster.

adj

1. (not-comparable)Made of alabaster.

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

   “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.”

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

2. (not-comparable)Resembling alabaster; white, pale, smooth, translucent.

   “An ominous alabaster fog settled in the valley.”

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

   “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.”

   “Thine alabaster cities gleam Undimmed by human tears!”

name

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