Cone

Cone (kōn), n. [L. conus cone (in sense 1), Gr. κῶνος; akin to Skr. çana whetstone, L. cuneus wedge, and prob. to E. hone. See Hone, n.] 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 of rays (Opt.), the pencil of rays of light which proceed from a radiant point to a given surface, as that of a lens, or conversely. — Cone pulley. See in the Vocabulary. — Oblique or Scalene cone, a cone of which the axis is inclined to the plane of its base. — Eight cone. See Cone, 1.

Cone (kōn), v. t. To render cone-shaped; to bevel like the circular segment of a cone; as, to cone the tires of car wheels.