Stones were commonly used for buildings, also as memorials of important events (Genesis 28:18; Joshua 24:26, 27; 1 Samuel 7:12, etc.). They were gathered out of cultivated fields (Isaiah 5:2; Comp. 2 Kings 3:19). This word is also used figuratively of believers (1 Peter 2:4, 5), and of the Messiah (Psalm 118:22; Isaiah 28:16; Matthew 21:42; Acts 4:11, etc.). In Dan. 2:45 it refers also to the Messiah. He is there described as "cut out of the mountain." (see ROCK.)

A "heart of stone" denotes great insensibility (1 Samuel 25:37).

Stones were set up to commemorate remarkable events, as by Jacob at Bethel (Genesis 28:18), at Padan-aram (35:4), and on the occasion of parting with Laban (31:45-47); by Joshua at the place on the banks of the Jordan where the people first "lodged" after crossing the river (Joshua 6:8), and also in "the midst of Jordan," where he erected another set of twelve stones (4:1-9); and by Samuel at "Ebenezer" (1 Samuel 7:12).

Noah Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language

1. (n.) Concreted earthy or mineral matter; also, any particular mass of such matter; as, a house built of stone; the boy threw a stone; pebbles are rounded stones.

2. (n.) A precious stone; a gem.

3. (n.) Something made of stone. Specifically: -

4. (n.) The glass of a mirror; a mirror.

5. (n.) A monument to the dead; a gravestone.

6. (n.) A calculous concretion, especially one in the kidneys or bladder; the disease arising from a calculus.

7. (n.) One of the testes; a testicle.

8. (n.) The hard endocarp of drupes; as, the stone of a cherry or peach.

9. (n.) A weight which legally is fourteen pounds, but in practice varies with the article weighed.

10. (n.) Fig.: Symbol of hardness and insensibility; torpidness; insensibility; as, a heart of stone.

11. (n.) A stand or table with a smooth, flat top of stone, commonly marble, on which to arrange the pages of a book, newspaper, etc., before printing; -- called also imposing stone.

12. (n.) To pelt, beat, or kill with stones.

13. (n.) To make like stone; to harden.

14. (n.) To free from stones; also, to remove the seeds of; as, to stone a field; to stone cherries; to stone raisins.

15. (n.) To wall or face with stones; to line or fortify with stones; as, to stone a well; to stone a cellar.

16. (n.) To rub, scour, or sharpen with a stone.