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whetstonemore about whetstone

whetstone

 

  4  definitions  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Whetstone  \Whet"stone`\,  n.  [AS.  hwetst[=a]n.] 
  A  piece  of  stone,  natural  or  artificial,  used  for  whetting, 
  or  sharpening,  edge  tools. 
 
  The  dullness  of  the  fools  is  the  whetstone  of  the  wits. 
  --Shak. 
 
  Diligence  is  to  the  understanding  as  the  whetstone  to 
  the  razor.  --South. 
 
  Note:  Some  whetstones  are  used  dry,  others  are  moistened  with 
  water,  or  lubricated  with  oil. 
 
  {To  give  the  whetstone},  to  give  a  premium  for  extravagance 
  in  falsehood.  [Obs.] 
 
  From  WordNet  r  1.6  [wn]: 
 
  whetstone 
  n  :  a  flat  stone  for  sharpening  edged  tools  or  knives 
 
  From  U.S.  Gazetteer  (1990)  [gazetteer]: 
 
  Whetstone,  AZ  (CDP,  FIPS  82155) 
  Location:  31.70171  N,  110.34075  W 
  Population  (1990):  1289  (593  housing  units) 
  Area:  32.6  sq  km  (land),  0.0  sq  km  (water) 
 
  From  The  Free  On-line  Dictionary  of  Computing  (13  Mar  01)  [foldoc]: 
 
  Whetstone 
 
    The  first  major  {synthetic  benchmark}  program, 
  intended  to  be  representative  for  numerical  ({floating-point} 
  intensive)  programming.  It  is  based  on  statistics  gathered  by 
  Brian  Wichmann  at  the  {National  Physical  Laboratory}  in 
  England,  using  an  {Algol  60}  {compiler}  which  translated  Algol 
  into  instructions  for  the  imaginary  Whetstone  machine.  The 
  compilation  system  was  named  after  the  small  town  of  Whetstone 
  outside  the  City  of  Leicester,  England,  where  it  was  designed. 
 
  The  later  {dhrystone}  benchmark  was  a  pun  on  Whetstone. 
 
  Source  code:  {C 
  (ftp://netlib.att.com/netlib/benchmark/whetstonec.Z)},  {single 
  precision  Fortran 
  (ftp://netlib.att.com:/netlib/benchmark/whetstones.Z)}, 
  {double  precision  Fortran 
  (ftp://netlib.att.com:/netlib/benchmark/whetstoned.Z)}. 
 
  ["A  Synthetic  Benchmark",  H.J.  Curnow  and  B.A.  Wichmann  The 
  Computer  Journal,  19,1  (1976),  pp  43-49]. 
 
  (1994-11-14)




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