Mortar

Mortar - (Easton's Bible Dictionary)

(Heb. homer), cement of lime and sand (Gen. 11:3; Ex. 1:14); also potter's clay (Isa. 41:25; Nah. 3:14). Also Heb. aphar, usually rendered "dust," clay or mud used for cement in building (Lev. 14:42, 45).

Mortar for pulverizing (Prov. 27:22) grain or other substances by means of a pestle instead of a mill. Mortars were used in the wilderness for pounding the manna (Num. 11:8). It is commonly used in Palestine at the present day to pound wheat, from which the Arabs make a favourite dish called kibby.

Mortar

Mortar - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

MOR'TAR, n. [L. mortarium.]

1. A vessel of wood or metal in form of an inverted bell, in which substances are pounded or bruised with a pestle.

2. A short piece of ordnance, thick and wide, used for throwing bombs, carcasses,shells, _c.; so named from its resemblance in shape to the utensil above described.

MOR'TAR, n. A mixture of lime and sand with water, used as a cement for uniting stones and bricks in walls. If the lime is slaked and the materials mixed with lime water, the cement will be much stronger.

Mort d'ancestor. In law, a writ of assize, by which a demandant recovers possession of an estate from which he has been ousted, on the death of his ancestor.

mor'-ter (medhokhah (Nu 11:8), makhtesh (Pr 27:22)): A hollowed stone or vessel in which grain or other substance was pounded or beaten with a pestle. The Israelites used a mortar in which to beat the manna in the wilderness (Nu 11:8), and Pr 27:22 declares, "Though thou shouldst bray a fool in a mortar with a pestle .... yet will not his foolishness depart from him," i.e. it is inherent and ineradicable. Some have supposed an allusion to an oriental mode of punishment by pounding the criminal to death in a mortar, but this is unlikely. In illustration of Pr 27:22 such proverbs are quoted as "Though you beat that loose woman in a mortar, she will not leave her ways." See also BRAY. For "mortar" (the King James Version "morter").

See BITUMEN.

James Orr

1. Bitumen, as in the Babylonian structures;
2. Common mud or moistened clay;
3. A very firm cement compounded of sand, ashes and lime, in the proportions respectively of 1,2,3, well pounded, sometimes mixed and sometimes coated with oil, so as to form a surface almost impenetrable to wet or the weather. In Assyrian and also Egyptian brick buildings, stubble or straw, as hair or wool among ourselves, was added to increase the tenacity.

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