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A large stake, or piece of timber, pointed and driven into the earth, as at the bottom of a river, or in a harbor where the ground is soft, for the support of a building, a pier, or other superstructure, or to form a cofferdam, etc.

A long, flat-bottomed canoe, used for the navigation of rivers and lagoons in Central America. Squier.

; a sub-base; a block upon which the moldings of an architrave or trim are stopped at the bottom. See Illust. of Column.

A mixture of hair and tar for covering the bottom of a ship.

The share of a plow, or that part which cuts the slice of earth or sod at the bottom of the furrow. Plowshare bone (Anat.), the pygostyle.

A wooden flat-bottomed boat, a metallic cylinder, or a frame covered with canvas, India rubber, etc., forming a portable float, used in building bridges quickly for the passage of troops.

An upright support or guide fastened at the bottom only. Poppet head, Puppet head. See Headstock (a).

Graphite, or black lead, often used on the bottoms of racing vessels to diminish friction.

Having a protuberant belly, like the bottom of a pot.

A flat-bottomed boat or lighter, -- used in Holland and the Baltic, and sometimes armed in case of war. [Written also pram, and prame.]

Capable of being precipitated, or cast to the bottom, as a substance in solution. See Precipitate, n. (Chem.)

to the solution, or of some force, such as heat or cold. The precipitate may fall to the bottom (whence the name), may be diffused through the solution, or may float at or near the surface. Red precipitate (Old. Chem), mercuric oxide (HgO) a heavy red crystalline powder obtained by heating mercuric nitrate, or by heat…

Fig.: to search to the bottom; to scrutinize or examine thoroughly. Dryden. The growing disposition to probe the legality of all acts, of the crown. Hallam.

Intellectually deep; entering far into subjects; reaching to the bottom of a matter, or of a branch of learning; thorough; as, a profound investigation or treatise; a profound scholar; profound wisdom.

A flat-bottomed boat with square ends. It is adapted for use in shallow waters.

The button, globule, or mass of metal, in a more or less impure state, which forms in the bottom of the crucible in smelting and reduction of ores.

The height to which works are raised above the bottom of the ditch. Wilhelm.

s or by dint of habit; but without seriousness there can be no religious principle at the bottom, no course of conduct from religious motives; in a word, there can be no religion. Paley. Religion [was] not, as too often now, used as equivalent for godliness; but . . . it expressed the outer form and embodiment which th…

That which falls to the bottom of liquors; sediment; also, refuse; residuum. [Obs.] Jer. Taylor.

A loan upon goods laden on board a ship. It differs from bottomry, which is a loan on the ship itself. Bouvier.