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The act process of mastering; the state of having mastered. He could attain to a mastery in all languages. Tillotson. The learning and mastery of a tongue, being unpleasant in itself, should not be cumbered with other difficulties. Locke.

al; nuptial; hymeneal; as, matrimonial rights or duties. If he relied upon that title, he could be but a king at courtesy, and have rather a matrimonial than a regal power. Bacon.

inded; base; destitute of honor; spiritless; as, a mean motive. Can you imagine I so mean could prove, To save my life by changing of my love Dryden.

t; to reform; hence, to quicken; as, to mend one's manners or pace. The best service they could do the state was to mend the lives of the persons who composed it. Sir W. Temple.

rcurial quality; spirit; mutability; fickleness. [Obs.] He was so full of mercury that he could not fix long in any friendship, or to any design. Bp. Burnet.

To imitate or ape for sport; to ridicule by imitation. The walk, the words, the gesture, could supply, The habit mimic, and the mien belie. Dryden.

To take one's self off; to go. [Slang] As long as George the Fourth could reign, he reigned, And then he mizzled. Epigram, quoted by Wright.

y, or musical manner; as, the organs of speech modulate the voice in reading or speaking. Could any person so modulate her voice as to deceive so many Broome.

To be dull and spiritless. "Moping melancholy." Milton. A sickly part of one true sense Could not so mope. Shak.

t and wrong; conduct; behavior; -- usually in the plural. Corrupt in their morals as vice could make them. South.

nce. Minds desirous of revenge were not moved with gold. Knolles. No female arts his mind could move. Dryden.

n was to a character in Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" so intent on raking up muck that he could not see a celestial crown held above him.

to chew deliberately or in large mouthfuls. [Formerly written also maunch and mounch.] I could munch your good dry oats. Shak.

l in service; to get together. "Mustering all its force." Cowper. All the gay feathers he could muster. L'Estrange. To muster troops into service (Mil.), to inspect and enter troops on the muster roll of the army. -- To muster troops out of service (Mil.), to register them for final payment and discharge. -- To muste…

ected from a creating or ordering intelligence. I oft admire How Nature, wise and frugal, could commit Such disproportions. Milton.

Adjoining in a series; immediately preceding or following in order. None could tell whose turn should be the next. Gay.

rmed by an angle in bodies or between bodies; a corner; a recess; a secluded retreat. How couldst thou find this dark, sequestered nook Milton.

hing of suffering our souls to be slaves to our lusts." Ray. (b) Not to understand; as, I could make nothing of what he said.

Servile attention; sycophancy. [Obs.] Salads and flesh, such as their haste could get, Served with observance. Chapman. This is not atheism, But court observance. Beau. & Fl.

that arises from the relations of man to man; as, kind offices, pious offices. I would I could do a good office between you. Shak.