LOADSTONE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does loadstone mean? 

• LOADSTONE (noun)
  The noun LOADSTONE has 1 sense:

1. a permanent magnet consisting of magnetite that possess polarity and has the power to attract as well as to be attracted magnetically

  Familiarity information: LOADSTONE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LOADSTONE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A permanent magnet consisting of magnetite that possess polarity and has the power to attract as well as to be attracted magnetically

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Synonyms:

loadstone; lodestone

Hypernyms ("loadstone" is a kind of...):

permanent magnet; static magnet (a magnet that retains its magnetism after being removed from a magnetic field)

Meronyms (substance of "loadstone"):

magnetic iron-ore; magnetite (an oxide of iron that is strongly attracted by magnets)

 Context examples 

This loadstone is under the care of certain astronomers, who, from time to time, give it such positions as the monarch directs.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

In vain Alleyne bethought him of where he was, and of those laws of good breeding and decorum which should restrain him: those colored capitals and black even lines drew his hand down to them, as the loadstone draws the needle, until, almost before he knew it, he was standing with the romance of Garin de Montglane before his eyes, so absorbed in its contents as to be completely oblivious both of where he was and why he had come there.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

By means of this loadstone, the island is made to rise and fall, and move from one place to another.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

But the greatest curiosity, upon which the fate of the island depends, is a loadstone of a prodigious size, in shape resembling a weaver’s shuttle.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

To explain the manner of its progress, let A B represent a line drawn across the dominions of Balnibarbi, let the line c d represent the loadstone, of which let d be the repelling end, and c the attracting end, the island being over C: let the stone be placed in position c d, with its repelling end downwards; then the island will be driven upwards obliquely towards D.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

And the king, when he is highest provoked, and most determined to press a city to rubbish, orders the island to descend with great gentleness, out of a pretence of tenderness to his people, but, indeed, for fear of breaking the adamantine bottom; in which case, it is the opinion of all their philosophers, that the loadstone could no longer hold it up, and the whole mass would fall to the ground.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)