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pearl

noun

  1. a smooth, hard, usually white or bluish-gray body of varied but usually roundish shape that is an abnormal nacreous growth within the shell of some oysters and certain other bivalve mollusks and forms around a grain of sand, a parasite, or some other foreign object: it is used as a gem
  2. mother-of-pearl
  3. any person or thing regarded as like a pearl in some way, as in size, shape, color, beauty, value, etc.
  4. the color of some pearls, a bluish gray

transitive verb

  1. to adorn or cover with pearls or pearl-like drops
  2. to make like a pearl in shape

intransitive verb

to fish for pearl-bearing mollusks, esp. oysters

adjective

  1. of or having pearls
  2. like a pearl in shape or color
  3. made of mother-of-pearl: pearl buttons

Related Forms:

transitive verb, intransitive verb, noun

Obsolete purl

noun

a feminine name

  1. river in central Miss., flowing south into the Gulf of Mexico: 490 mi (789 km)

See pearl in American Heritage Dictionary 4

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