diamonds

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of diamond.

   The jeweler appraised the diamonds before the auction began.

   Miners spent weeks sifting the gravel for diamonds.

   Note

   The plural counts stones, not substance. The mineral itself takes no plural, so diamonds always means separate things: gems on a jeweler's tray, diamond rings, or figures shaped like a diamond. The same spelling also names the card suit, which has its own grammar, and it serves as the verb form in a sentence like sunlight diamonds the lake.

2. 2
   noununcountableplural

   One of the four suits in a standard deck of playing cards, marked by a red rhombus symbol (♦).

   The contract depended on how the diamonds were split between the two hands.

   He trumped her ace because diamonds were the chosen trump suit.

   Note

   A card player's word that exists only in the plural. Like hearts, clubs and spades, the suit is named with the -s form and takes a plural verb: diamonds were trumps, diamonds are split evenly. The grammar matters in bidding and play, where the suit is treated as a single unit but still agrees as a plural.

3. 3
   nounslangplural

   A slang term for the testicles.

   He clutched his diamonds after the ball struck him below the belt.

   A stray elbow caught him right in the diamonds during the scrum.

   Similarballs, nuts, testicles

   Note

   Slang that turns anatomy into treasure. It runs on the same metaphor as its synonym family jewels: what is precious and easily hurt is spoken of as gems. It is jocular rather than crude, but it still belongs to locker rooms and casual talk, usually when someone has just been hit there. Like the suit name, it is used only in the plural.

4. 4
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of diamond.

   Rain diamonds the spider web strung across the porch.

   Sunlight diamonds the surface of the lake at dawn.

   Note

   The verb behind this form means to adorn with diamonds, or with something that only looks like them. That second reading is where it comes alive, in fairly literary prose: light, water or frost can do the decorating, as when sunlight diamonds a lake. It is transitive, so the thing being adorned always follows the verb.

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