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

Etymology: ME perle < MFr < VL *perla, *perula, altered (? after L sphaerula, spherule) < L perna, a sea mussel, lit., a ham: from the shape of its peduncle

transitive verb

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

intransitive verb

adjective

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

transitive verb, intransitive verb, noun

noun

Etymology: < pearl