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ops seventeen yards. To drop astern (Naut.), to go astern of another vessel; to be left behind; to slacken the speed of a vessel so as to fall behind and to let another pass a head. -- To drop down (Naut.), to sail, row, or move down a river, or toward the sea. -- To drop off, to fall asleep gently; also, to die. [Co…

To hinder from growing to the natural size; to make or keep small; to stunt. Addison. Even the most common moral ideas and affections . . . would be stunted and dwarfed, if cut off from a spiritual background. J. C. Shairp.

Serious; important. [Obs.] They whom earnest lets do often hinder. Hooker.

the effective men in a regiment. They are not effective of anything, nor leave no work behind them. Bacon. Whosoever is an effective, real cause of doing his heighbor wrong, is criminal. Jer. Taylor.

To stop; to hinder by prohibition; to block up. He embarred all further trade. Bacon.

To hinder from freedom of thought, speech, or action by something which impedes or confuses mental action; to perplex; to discompose; to disconcert; as, laughter may embarrass an orator.

A state of being embarrassed; perplexity; impediment to freedom of action; entanglement; hindrance; confusion or discomposure of mind, as from not knowing what to do or to say; disconcertedness. The embarrassment which inexperienced minds have often to express themselves upon paper. W. Irving. The embarrassments tom co…

d; to issue and appear; as, to emerge from the water or the ocean; the sun emerges from behind the moon in an eclipse; to emerge from poverty or obscurity. "Thetis . . . emerging from the deep." Dryden. Those who have emerged from very low, some from the lowest, classes of society. Burke.

as, the emersion of the moon from the shadow of the earth; the emersion of a star from behind the moon.

To hinder. See Impeach. [Obs.] Spenser.

Hindrance; molestation.[Obs.] Spenser.

of armadillos of the genera Dasypus and Euphractus, having five toes both on the fore and hind feet.

r fort; to place or hide securely; to conceal. She shall not see me: I will ensconce me behind the arras. Shak.

The segment of the brain next behind the midbrain, including the cerebellum and pons; the hindbrain. Sometimes abbreviated to epen.

In insects: The lateral piece behind the episternum. [Written also epimerum.]

A stub, like soft horn, about the size of a chestnut, situated behind and below the pastern joint.

from danger; -- often followed by from or out of. Haste, for thy life escape, nor look behindKeble.

The depression behind the beak of certain bivalves; the ligamental area. Escutcheon of pretense, an escutcheon used in English heraldry to display the arms of the bearer's wife; -- not commonly used unless she an heiress. Cf. Impalement.

To shut out; to hinder from entrance or admission; to debar from participation or enjoyment; to deprive of; to except; -- the opposite to admit; as, to exclude a crowd from a room or house; to exclude the light; to exclude one nation from the ports of another; to exclude a taxpayer from the privilege of voting. And non…

To make thin or slender; to draw out so as to lessen the thickness. His body behind the head becomes broad, from whence it is again extenuated all the way to the tail. Grew.