adam

n. 1. same as adamancy.
Syn. -- obstinacy, obduracy, unyieldingness, adamancy [ WordNet 1.5 +PJC ]

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

n. 1. North American orchid (Aplectrum hyemale) bearing a single leaf and yellowish-brown flowers.
Syn. -- puttyroot. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

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 ]

a. [ L. ad + E. ambulacral. ] (Zool.) Next to the ambulacra; as, the adambulacral ossicles of the starfish. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } a. Of or pertaining to Adam, or resembling him. [ 1913 Webster ]

Adamic earth, a name given to common red clay, from a notion that Adam means red earth. [ 1913 Webster ]