Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Touchstone

Touch′stone′ (·stōn′), n. 1. (Min.) Lydian stone; basanite; — so called because used to test the purity of gold and silver by the streak which is left upon the stone when it is rubbed by the metal. See Basanite.

2. Fig.: Any test or criterion by which the qualities of a thing are tried. Hooker.

The foregoing doctrine affords us also a touchstone for the trial of spirits. South.

Irish touchstone (Min.), basalt, the stone which composes the Giant's Causeway.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty.