Definition of "lapidary"

lapidary

/ˈlæpɪdəɹi/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural lapidaries
1. A person who cuts, polishes, engraves, or deals in gems.
  Quotations
  In the very early days of gemstone fashioning, a polisher or lapidary would cut and polish both diamonds and other gemstones.
  2013, Peter G. Read, Gemmology, Elsevier, page 289
2. The field in which such a person works, a subfield of gemology.
3. The process of such work.
4. An expert in gems or precious stones; a connoisseur of lapidary work.
5. (archaic) A treatise on precious stones.
adjective
not comparable
1. Pertaining to gems and precious stones, or the art of working them.
2. Suitable for inscriptions; efficient, stately, concise; embodying the refinement and precision characteristic of stone-cutting.
  Quotations
  His grand principle is, that lapidary inscriptions, of what sort soever, should be Historical rather than Lyrical.
  1831, Thomas Carlyle, “Getting Under Way”, in Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh. […], London: Chapman and Hall, […], book second, page 91
  The sole truth was that supplied by mathematics or by such lapidary propositions as “What's done cannot be undone,” which was irrefutably correct.
  2000, Karen Armstrong, The Battle for God: Fundamentalism in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Knopf/HarperCollins, p. 71