Wiktionary

tombstone

See also: Tombstone and tomb-stone

English

edit
 
A tombstone in Camp Butler National Cemetery

Alternative forms

edit

Etymology

edit

From tomb +‎ stone.

Pronunciation

edit

Noun

edit

tombstone (plural tombstones)

  1. A grave marker, a stone slab or similar object marking a person's grave.
    Synonyms: headstone, gravestone, grave marker
    • 1922, Virginia Woolf, chapter 2, in Jacob's Room:
      True, there's no harm in crying for one's husband, and the tombstone, though plain, was a solid piece of work, and on summer's days when the widow brought her boys to stand there one felt kindly towards her.
  2. (mathematics) The symbol "∎" marking the end of a proof.
    Synonym: halmos
  3. (computing, Microsoft Windows) A marker that takes the place of deleted data, allowing for replication of the deletion across servers etc.
    • 2008, Laura E. Hunter, Robbie Allen, Active Directory Cookbook, page 739:
      If you attempt to restore a backup that is older than the tombstone lifetime, it may introduce objects that were deleted […]
  4. (computing) A crashdump.
    • 2014, Joshua J. Drake, Zach Lanier, Collin Mulliner, Android Hacker's Handbook, page 186:
      This actually results in a crash dump, which is written to the log and to a tombstone file.
  5. (cardiology) An unusual morphological feature on an electrocardiogram indicative of acute myocardial infarction, characterized by a massive ST elevation.
  6. (journalism) A printed advertisement in a newspaper or magazine, typically having unadorned centered text in black and white, enclosed in a simple box.
  7. (art) A museum plaque or caption displaying information about a work of art or exhibited object.
    • 2015, Harvard Art Museum, Writing on the Wall:
      The last bit of information on each tombstone is an accession number—an alphanumeric block that is assigned when an object is added (accessioned) to the museums’ collections.
  8. (slang, archaic) A pawnbroker's ticket.
    • 1862, W. H. Watts, My Private Note-Book; or, Recollections of an old reporter, page 123:
      " […] Pity we're not both same size, or I'd steal one of your shirts, for I buried the last of mine yesterday, and here's the tombstone," producing a pawnbroker's duplicate.

Derived terms

edit

Translations

edit

See also

edit

Verb

edit

tombstone (third-person singular simple present tombstones, present participle tombstoning, simple past and past participle tombstoned)

  1. (UK, intransitive) To take part in tombstoning: to jump into the sea, etc. from a cliff or other high point so as to enter the water vertically straight.
  2. (surfing) For a surfboard to stand upright half-submerged in the water (like a tombstone, above) because the surfer is underwater with his or her legrope pulled tight. Often this indicates a surfer in difficulty, either held down by the power of a wave or unconscious and unable to get to the surface.
    • 2005, Bruce Jenkins, Surfer magazine, (referring to Kelly Slater) [1]:
      Before the contest even started, Slater went down hard in a warmup session. He took a two-wave hold-down in the semifinals, his board tombstoning eerily for all to see, […]
  3. (transitive, computing, Microsoft Windows) To replace (an object or data) with a tombstone marker.
    • 2000, William Boswell, Inside Windows 2000 Server, page 211:
      One of the many improvements in Windows 2000 WINS (and NT4 SP4) is the capability to selectively delete or tombstone records.

References

edit
  • (pawnbroker's ticket): John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary

Further reading

edit
Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=tombstone&oldid=83011496"
  NODES
Note 2