pearl / pərl/ • n. a hard, lustrous spherical mass, typically white or bluish-gray, formed within the shell of a pearl oyster or other bivalve mollusk and highly prized as a gem. ∎  an artificial imitation of this. ∎  (pearls) a necklace of pearls. ∎  something resembling a pearl in appearance: the sweat stood in pearls along his forehead. ∎ short for mother-of-pearl. ∎ fig. a precious thing; the finest example of something: the nation's media were assembled to hear his pearls of wisdom. ∎  a very pale bluish gray or white like the color of a pearl.• v. [intr.] 1. poetic/lit. form pearllike drops: the juice on the blade pearled into droplets. ∎  [tr.] make bluish-gray like a pearl: the peaked hills, blue and pearled with clouds. 2. [usu. as n.] (pearling) dive or fish for pearl oysters.PHRASES: pearls before swine valuable things offered or given to people who do not appreciate them.DERIVATIVES: pearl·er n.

pearl Hard, smooth, iridescent concretion of calcium carbonate produced by certain marine and freshwater bivalve molluscs. It is composed of nacre, or mother-of-pearl, which forms the inner layer of mollusc shells. A pearl results from an abnormal growth of nacre around minute particles of foreign matter, such as a grain of sand.