%daman%

n. 1. obstinacy.
Syn. -- obstinacy, obduracy, unyieldingness, adamance [ WordNet 1.5 +PJC ]

n. [ OE. adamaunt, adamant, diamond, magnet, OF. adamant, L. adamas, adamantis, the hardest metal, fr. Gr. 'ada`mas, -antos; 'a priv. + dama^, n to tame, subdue. In OE., from confusion with L. adamare to love, be attached to, the word meant also magnet, as in OF. and LL. See Diamond, Tame. ] 1. A stone imagined by some to be of impenetrable hardness; a name given to the diamond and other substances of extreme hardness; but in modern mineralogy it has no technical signification. It is now a rhetorical or poetical name for the embodiment of impenetrable hardness. [ 1913 Webster ]

Opposed the rocky orb
Of tenfold adamant, his ample shield. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Lodestone; magnet. [ Obs. ] “A great adamant of acquaintance.” Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]

As true to thee as steel to adamant. Greene. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. adamantēus. ] Of adamant; hard as adamant. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. adamantinus, Gr. &unr_;. ] 1. Made of adamant, or having the qualities of adamant; incapable of being broken, dissolved, or penetrated; as, adamantine bonds or chains. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Min.) Like the diamond in hardness or luster. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) A small herbivorous mammal of the genus Hyrax. The species found in Palestine and Syria is Hyrax Syriacus; that of Northern Africa is Hyrax Brucei; -- called also ashkoko, dassy, and rock rabbit. See Cony, and Hyrax. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Of or pertaining to Rhadamanthus; rigorously just; as, a Rhadamanthine judgment. [ 1913 Webster ]