Search the Dictionary

A dark, obscure, or inexplicable saying; a riddle; a statement, the hidden meaning of which is to be discovered or guessed. A custom was among the ancients of proposing an enigma at festivals. Pope.

An explanatory or commendatory postscript to a poem, essay, or book; -- also in the French from, l'envoi. The envoy of a ballad is the "sending" of it forth. Skeat.

the beginning and at the end of a sentence; as, "Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice." Phil. iv. 4.

r to substitute something else stronger or more significant; as, Most brave! Brave, did I say most heroic act!

ith a view to mislead; as, to equivocate is the work of duplicity. All that Garnet had to say for him was that he supposed he meant to equivocate. Bp. Stillingfleet.

r copy. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as John xiii. 15. I gave, thou sayest, the example; I led the way. Milton.

or prize, to hold it forth or to tender it as a bounty to candidates. -- To exibit an essay, to declaim or otherwise present it in public. [Obs.]

newly fledged. [Obs.] Like eyas hawk up mounts unto the skies, His newly budded pinions assay. Spebser.

Witty or humorous writings or saying; witticisms; merry conceits.

, is not merely received by an object, but produces some change in the object, as when we say, He made the water wine. Sometimes the idea of activity in a verb or adjective involves in it a reference to an effect, in the way of causality, in the active voice on the immediate objects, and in the passive voice on the sub…

th ot fact; exact; accurate; as, a faithful narrative or representation. It is a faithful saying. 2 Tim. ii. 11. The Faithful, the adherents of any system of religious belief; esp. used as an epithet of the followers of Mohammed.

r, let us consider the probable event. No farther, (used elliptically for) go no farther; say no more, etc. It will be dangerous to go on. No farther ! Shak.

play fast and loose, to act with giddy or reckless inconstancy or in a tricky manner; to say one thing and do another "Play fast and loose with faith." Shak. Fast and loose pulleys (Mach.), two pulleys placed side by side on a revolving shaft, which is driven from another shaft by a band, and arranged to disengage and…

To enrich; to exalt; to benefit. They stuck not to say that the king cared not to plume his nobility and people to feather himself. Bacon. Dryden.

e of anything, or of any part of a thing, as of a landscape, a picture, a treaty, or an essay; any marked peculiarity or characteristic; as, one of the features of the landscape. And to her service bind each living creature Through secret understanding of their feature. Spenser.

ves of sensation; -- followed by an adjective describing the kind of sensation. Blind men say black feels rough, and white feels smooth. Dryden. To feel after, to search for; to seek to find; to seek as a person groping in the dark. "If haply they might feel after him, and find him." Acts xvii. 27. - To feel of, to exa…

; hence, to pretend; to form and relate as if true. There are no such things done as thou sayest, but thou feignest them out of thine own heart. Neh. vi. 8. The poet Did feign that Orpheus drew trees, stones, and floods. Shak.

er fetches out the colors [of marble]" Addison. -- To fetch up. (a) To overtake. [Obs.] "Says [the hare], I can fetch up the tortoise when I please." L'Estrange. (b) To stop suddenly.

gures; an accessory character on the stage, who figures in its scenes, but has nothing to say; hence, one who figures in any scene, without taking a prominent part.

Representing by a figure, or by resemblance; typical; representative. This, they will say, was figurative, and served, by God's appointment, but for a time, to shadow out the true glory of a more divine sanctity. Hooker.