Search the Dictionary

Work composed of shells, or adorned with them. Cotgrave.

Plain; unadorned; as, simple dress. "Simple truth." Spenser. "His simple story." Burns.

ant. "A slender, choleric man." Chaucer. She, as a veil down to the slender waist, Her unadorned golden tresses wore. Milton.

More generally, any poetical strain; a poem. The bard that first adorned our native tongue Tuned to his British lyre this ancient song. Dryden.

Figuratively, any little thing that sparkless. "The rich spangles that adorn the sky." Waller. Oak spangle. See under Oak.

tapering part of a steeple, or the steeple itself. "With glistering spires and pinnacles adorned." Milton. A spire of land that stand apart, Cleft from the main. Tennyson. Tall spire from which the sound of cheerful bells Just undulates upon the listening ear. Cowper.

To mark or adorn with the representation of small branches; to work with sprigs; as, to sprig muslin.

To set or adorn with stars, or bright, radiating bodies; to bespangle; as, a robe starred with gems. "A sable curtain starred with gold." Young.

Adorned or studded with stars; bespangled.

Abounding with stars; adorned with stars. "Above the starry sky." Pope.

Adorned with statues. "The statued hall." Longfellow. "Statued niches." G. Eliot.

Furnished with, or having the form of, a steeple; adorned with steeples. Fairfax.

To fasten, attach, or cause to remain, by thrusting in; hence, also, to adorn or deck with things fastened on as by piercing; as, to stick a pin on the sleeve. My shroud of white, stuck all with yew. Shak. The points of spears are stuck within the shield. Dryden.

Adorned with pendants like icicles.

To adorn with shining studs, or knobs. Thy horses shall be trapped, Their harness studded all with gold and pearl. Shak.

To adorn with tapestry, or as with tapestry. The Trosachs wound, as now, between gigantic walls of rock tapestried with broom and wild roses. Macaulay.

To adorn with tassels. Chaucer.

A quadrangular pillar, adorned on the top with the figure of a head, as of a man, woman, or satyr; -- called also terminal figure. See Terminus, n., 2 and 3.

Adorned with, or wearing, a tiara.

To adorn with tinsel; to deck out with cheap but showy ornaments; to make gaudy. She, tinseled o'er in robes of varying hues. Pope.