Word.ws English Dictionary

casting the first stone

casting the first stone is the present participle and gerund of cast the first stone.

Meaning of cast the first stone

Verb

cast the first stone (third-person singular simple present casts the first stone, present participle casting the first stone, simple past and past participle cast the first stone)

  1. (idiomatic) To act self-righteously in accusing another person, believing oneself to be blameless.
    • I knew I couldn't cast the first stone as I knew I had weaknesses. ... (But) as a leader of the government trying to uphold the rule of law I have no choice but to move forward and say you cannot accept perjury in your highest officials.2007, March 10, Mr Gingrich, on the impeachment proceedings in 1999. Reported in The Guardian

Questions about casting the first stone

What is casting the first stone the present participle and gerund of?
Casting the first stone is the present participle and gerund of cast the first stone.

Words near casting the first stone in the dictionary

  1. casting out the Devil with Beelzebub
  2. casting over
  3. casting round
  4. casting snowballs
  5. casting someone's water
  6. casting the first stone
  7. casting up
  8. casting up one's accounts
  9. casting vote
  10. casting votes
  11. casting weight

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: casting the first stone (page history and authors); cast the first stone (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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