cone Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun any cone-shaped artifact
  2. noun a shape whose base is a circle and whose sides taper up to a point
    cone shape; conoid.
  3. noun cone-shaped mass of ovule- or spore-bearing scales or bracts
    strobilus; strobile.
  4. noun a visual receptor cell in the retina that is sensitive to bright light and to color
    cone cell; retinal cone.
  5. verb make cone-shaped
    • cone a tire

WordNet

Cone noun
Etymology
L. conus cone (in sense 1), Gr. akin to Skr. çana whetstone, L. cuneus wedge, and prob. to E. hone. See Hone, n.
Definitions
  1. (Geom.) A solid of the form described by the revolution of a right-angled triangle about one of the sides adjacent to the right angle; -- called also a right cone. More generally, any solid having a vertical point and bounded by a surface which is described by a straight line always passing through that vertical point; a solid having a circle for its base and tapering to a point or vertex.
  2. Anything shaped more or less like a mathematical cone; as, a volcanic cone, a collection of scoriæ around the crater of a volcano, usually heaped up in a conical form.
    Now had Night measured with her shadowy cone Half way up hill this vast sublunar vault. Milton.
  3. (Bot.) The fruit or strobile of the Coniferæ, as of the pine, fir, cedar, and cypress. It is composed of woody scales, each one of which has one or two seeds at its base.
  4. (Zoöl.) A shell of the genus Conus, having a conical form.
Cone transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To render coneshaped; to bevel like the circular segment of a cone; as, to cone the tires of car wheels.

Webster 1913