whetstone

Meanings

1. A sharpening stone; a hard stone or piece of synthetically bonded hard minerals that has been formed with at least one flat surface, used to sharpen or hone an edged tool.
2. A stimulant.
3. Alternative letter-case form of Whetstone (“benchmark”).

1. To sharpen with a whetstone.

1. A suburb and ward in the borough of Barnet, Greater London, England (OS grid ref TQ2693).
2. A large village and civil parish in Blaby district, Leicestershire, England (OS grid ref SP5597).
3. A census-designated place in Cochise County, Arizona, United States.
4. An unincorporated community in Clay County, West Virginia, United States.
5. A surname.
6. A synthetic benchmark for evaluating the power and performance of a computer, primarily based on floating-point arithmetic.

1. A single instruction of the Whetstone benchmark, often expressed as a value per second.

Etymology

From Middle English whestone, whetston, whetesston, from Old English hwetstān, from Proto-West Germanic *hwattjastain (“whetstone”). Equivalent to whet (“to sharpen”) + stone.