table stonen.

c1467–9 in J. T. Fowler Extracts Acct. Rolls Abbey of Durham (1901) III. 641 Pro..nova operacione et posicione, tabilstonys [in the walls of a church].

a1601 W. Lambarde Dictionarium Angliæ (1730) 371 We see that dyvers smal Ryvers in the North swell sodainly, partly bycause the Soile under the Water be covered with large Table Stones.

1712 J. Henley tr. F. Vacca in tr. B. de Montfaucon Trav. Italy xiii. 203 Workmen..took up a Marble Table Stone, which stuck to the Wall in the nature of casing.

1828 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Dec. 728/2 He got Mrs Mather's consent to let a table-stone be placed in her aisle.

1852 T. Garrard Edward Colston iii. 82 The spot where his remains are laid was long distinguished by a table stone.

1930 N. S. Bell Pathways of Puritans 78 His grave is in the old burying ground near by, and on the simple table stone is the epitaph: ‘For talents, piety and learning, he shone as a star of the first magnitude’.

1971 Biblical Archaeol. 34 110 A large flat ‘table-stone’ perhaps used for food preparation.

2005 G. A. Knoblock Portsmouth Cemeteries ii. 31 This gravestone is unusual and may in fact be the remains of a tablestone that once lay flat on the ground.

1554 in J. Stuart Extracts Council Reg. Aberdeen (1844) I. 281 Findand sufficient hewyn stanes to the haill wark with the tabill stane of the gavillis and makand the said tolbuith vattirthicht.

1569 Crail Burgh Court 20 Oct. in Dict. Older Sc. Tongue at Tabill-stane The said James sall..sett the pait stanis in the myddis of the foirsaid gawill and table stanes vpoun the thak of the said Robert hows.

1616 in M. Wood Extracts Rec. Burgh Edinb. (1931) VI. 379 To the querriour..sex table stainis of five futtis.

a1669 ( Indenture Fotheringay in Dugdale's Monasticon Anglicanum (1846) VI. 1414/2 Either of the said isles shall have..two mighty arches butting on aither side to the said stepull..both yn table-stones and crestis, with a sqware embattailment therupon.

1694 in S. Ree Rec. Elgin (1908) II. 409 The syd walls to be tuell foots high with hewen table stone on the top of the walls.

1678 London Gaz. No. 1330/4 A Table stone, cut in India, perfect square, of the Second water, weighing 5 grains full.

1838 L. Feuchtwanger Treat. Gems 124 It is mostly cut in the form en cabochon; also, as thick or table-stones, and is used for numerous purposes in jewellery.

1906 Burlington Mag. Oct. 39/1 A belt of two large jewels of gold containing alternately two great round pearls..and a large oblong dark table stone.

1970 E. Bruton Diamonds i. 6 Grinding to remove the top point of the octahedral crystal to produce what was called the table stone presumably came later.

1997 Washington Post (Nexis) 19 Feb. c10 The world's largest (27 carats) talafstein [sic], or tablestone diamond, and is as flat and clear as a piece of window glass.

1744 C. Smith Antient & Present State County Down xv. 199 By the Advantage of the Ground the Upper or Table-Stone stands pretty near on a Level, though with a small Inclination.

1840 T. A. Trollope Summer in Brittany II. 88 These dolmens, or table-stones, consist..of one large flat mass, supported by several upright stones.

1880 R. Jefferies Greene Ferne Farm 150 He crawled right under the table-stone of the dolmen.

1930 Jrnl. Royal Anthropol. Inst. 60 61 There are many examples of free standing monuments of the form of a table-stone supported on pillars.

1963 Folklore 74 372 ‘The Cornish Pebble’..is supported on the points of two other stones leaving a hollow space beneath, really a cromlech or a dolmen, i.e. table stone.

1998 Irish Times (Nexis) 28 Aug. 54 A dolmen consists of three vertical stones topped with a single table stone.

1851 D. Wilson Archæol. & Prehistoric Ann. Scotl. iv. v. 562 As they are also very frequently flat on one side, there is a greater probability of the original purpose..having been for table-stones (Anglo-Saxon, toefelstan) or draughtsmen.