Jet, n. [written also jeat, jayet.] Min. A variety of lignite, of a very compact texture and velvet black color, susceptible of a good polish, and often wrought into mourning jewelry, toys, buttons, etc. Formerly called also black amber.
Jet ant Zool., a blackish European ant (Formica fuliginosa), which builds its nest of a paperlike material in the trunks of trees.
Am·ber n.
1. Min. A yellowish translucent resin resembling copal, found as a fossil in alluvial soils, with beds of lignite, or on the seashore in many places. It takes a fine polish, and is used for pipe mouthpieces, beads, etc., and as a basis for a fine varnish. By friction, it becomes strongly electric.
2. Amber color, or anything amber-colored; a clear light yellow; as, the amber of the sky.
3. Ambergris. [Obs.]
You that smell of amber at my charge. --Beau. & Fl.
4. The balsam, liquidambar.
Black amber, and old and popular name for jet.