Search the Dictionary

A description of some invention, designed to be patented, lodged in the patent office before the patent right is applied for, and operating as a bar to the issue of letters patent to any other person, respecting the same invention.

Celibate state; celibacy. [Obs.] He . . . preferreth holy celibate before the estate of marrige. Jer. Taylor.

One who is empowered to examine manuscripts before they are committed to the press, and to forbid their publication if they contain anything obnoxious; -- an official in some European countries.

A commemoration or celebration of an event which occurred a hudred years before.

ating to, or associated with, the commemoration of an event that happened a hundred years before; as, a centennial ode.

An open furnace or forge, in which blooms are heated before being wrought into bars.

tion. "Things that chance daily." Robynson (More's Utopia). If a bird's nest chance to be before thee. Deut. xxii. 6. I chanced on this letter. Shak.

The confused, unorganized condition or mass of matter before the creation of distinct and order forms.

A summary in writing of such matters as are to be inquired of or presented before justices in eyre, or justices of assize, or of the peace, in their sessions; -- also called articles. Jacob.

ng. -- Charge and discharge (Equity Practice), the old mode or form of taking an account before a master in chancery. -- Charge sheet, the paper on which are entered at a police station all arrests and accusations. -- To sound the charge, to give the signal for an attack.

game, and fly after other birds. And like the haggard, check at every feather That comes before his eye. Shak.

which persons are children; the condition or time from infancy to puberty. I have walked before you from my childhood. 1. Sam. xii. 2.

Exploit. [Obs.] Sir P. Sidney. Court of chivalry, a court formerly held before the lord high constable and earl marshal of England as judges, having cognizance of contracts and other matters relating to deeds of arms and war. Blackstone.

The alphabet; -- formerly so called, either from the cross usually set before it, or from a superstitious custom, sometimes practiced, of writing it in the form of a cross, by way of a charm. From infant conning of the Christcross-row. Wordsworth.

able for, Christmas. -- Christmas day. Same as Christmas. -- Christmas eve, the evening before Christmas. -- Christmas fern (Bot.), an evergreen North American fern (Aspidium acrostichoides), which is much used for decoration in winter. -- Christmas flower, Christmas rose, the black hellebore, a poisonous plant of…

ng on a screen a series of pictures, moved rapidly (25 to 50 a second) and intermittently before an objective lens, and producing by persistence of vision the illusion of continuous motion; a moving-picture machine; also, any of several other machines or devices producing moving pictorial effects. Other common names fo…

Summons to appear, as before a judge. [R.] Johnson

To call upon officially or authoritatively to appear, as before a court; to summon. The cited dead, Of all past ages, to the general doom Shall hasten. Milton. Cited by finger of God. De Quincey.

e from the imputation of guilt; to justify, vindicate, or acquit; -- often used with from before the thing imputed. I . . . am sure he will clear me from partiality. Dryden. How! wouldst thou clear rebellion Addison.

lergy. If convicted of a clergyable felony, he is entitled equally to his clergy after as before conviction. Blackstone. Benefit of clergy (Eng., Law), the exemption of the persons of clergymen from criminal process before a secular judge -- a privilege which was extended to all who could read, such persons being, in t…