meerschaum

See also: Meerschaum

English
Meerschaum pipe

Etymology

Borrowed from German Meerschaum (literally “sea foam”).

Noun

meerschaum (countable and uncountable, plural meerschaums)

  1. (uncountable) A soft white mineral, chiefly used for smoking-pipes and cigar holders.
    • 1956, Delano Ames, chapter 14, in Crime out of Mind‎:
      He gazed around until on the lid of a spinet he spotted a promising collection of bottles, gin, whiskey, vermouth and sherry, mixed with violin bows, a flute, a toppling pile of books, six volumes of Grove's Dictionary mingled with paperback thrillers, a guitar without any strings, a pair of binoculars, a meerschaum pipe and a jar half-full of wasps and apricot jam.
    Synonym: sepiolite
  2. (countable) A smoking-pipe made from meerschaum.

Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked

Further reading
  • “Meerschaum” in David Barthelmy, Webmineral Mineralogy Database, 1997–.
  • “meerschaum”, in Mindat.org‎, Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, accessed 29 August 2016.
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