variants
or less commonly stoney
stonier; stoniest
2
a
: insensitive to pity or human feeling : obdurate
b
: manifesting no movement or reaction : dumb, expressionless
c
: fearfully gripping : petrifying
3
archaic
: consisting of or made of stones
4
British
: stone broke
Synonyms
- affectless
- callous
- case-hardened
- cold-blooded
- compassionless
- desensitized
- hard
- hard-boiled
- hard-hearted
- heartless
- indurate
- inhuman
- inhumane
- insensate
- insensitive
- ironhearted
- merciless
- obdurate
- pachydermatous
- pitiless
- remorseless
- ruthless
- slash-and-burn
- soulless
- stonyhearted
- take-no-prisoners
- thick-skinned
- uncharitable
- unfeeling
- unmerciful
- unsparing
- unsympathetic
Examples of stony in a Sentence
She gave him a stony stare.
the judge's stony demeanor didn't raise the defendant's hopes for a more lenient sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Some trails that probe this stony playground are Granite Gardens, Constellation, Centennial and Watson Lake Loop.
—
Roger Naylor, The Arizona Republic, 26 Oct. 2024
In the wild, Atlantic pillar corals suffered a 97% decline in Florida between 2015-2024, primarily from the stony coral disease.
—Dinah Voyles Pulver, USA TODAY, 24 Sep. 2024
Laughter was a bit more scattered than in my press and industry screening that morning, and the European couple next to me sat in stony silence for much of the movie.
—Nate Jones, Vulture, 28 Aug. 2024
This wine oozes satiny delicacy with notes of ripe apple, citrus peel and beeswax but the vine age and soils lend the fruit a stony, serious complexity.
—Katie Kelly Bell, Forbes, 3 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for stony 
These examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
illustrate current usage. Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of
Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback
about these examples.
Roger Naylor, The Arizona Republic, 26 Oct. 2024
In the wild, Atlantic pillar corals suffered a 97% decline in Florida between 2015-2024, primarily from the stony coral disease.
—Dinah Voyles Pulver, USA TODAY, 24 Sep. 2024
Laughter was a bit more scattered than in my press and industry screening that morning, and the European couple next to me sat in stony silence for much of the movie.
—Nate Jones, Vulture, 28 Aug. 2024
This wine oozes satiny delicacy with notes of ripe apple, citrus peel and beeswax but the vine age and soils lend the fruit a stony, serious complexity.
—Katie Kelly Bell, Forbes, 3 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for stony
Dictionary Entries Near stony
Cite this Entry
“Stony.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stony. Accessed 16 Nov. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
stony
adjective
variants
also stoney
stonier; stoniest
1
a
: full of stones
stony soil
b
: hard as stone
a stony seed
Love words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share