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A venomous Australian snake of the family Elapidæ, of several species, as the Hoplocephalus superbus and Acanthopis antarctica. -- Death bell, a bell that announces a death. The death bell thrice was heard to ring. Mickle. -- Death candle, a light like that of a candle, viewed by the superstitious as presaging death.…

The act of running down; a lapse. [R.] Gauden.

To cause to melt away; to dissolve; to consume; to waste. [Obs.] Dilapidating, or rather deliquating, his bishopric. Fuller.

jocosely so called from the analogy of the sound of a bell induced by the stroke of the clapper.

en thoroughly deceived, cheated, or fooled. [Colloq.] -- Done for, tired out; used up; collapsed; destroyed; dead; killed. [Colloq.] -- Done up. (a) Wrapped up. (b) Worn out; exhausted. [Colloq.]

Folding or lapping over on the breast, with a row of buttons and buttonholes on each side; as, a double-breasted coat.

One of several pieces fayed across the apron and lapped in the knightheads, or inside planking above the upper deck. Ham. Nav. Encyc.

lectric cat (Zoöl.), one of three or more large species of African catfish of the genus Malapterurus (esp. M. electricus of the Nile). They have a large electrical organ and are able to give powerful shocks; -- called also sheathfish. -- Electric clock. See under Clock, and see Electro-chronograph. -- Electric curren…

., Testudo elephantina, from islands in the Indian Ocean; and T. elephantopus, from the Galapagos Islands.

A structure which overlaps the mouth of certain insects.

Overlapping each other; -- said of leaves whose bases are folded so as to overlap and bestride the leaves within or above them, as in the iris.

A defense for the shoulder, composed of flexible overlapping plates of metal, used in the 15th century; -- the origin of the modern epaulette. Fairholt.

o the decision of a judge, in the course of a trail, or in his charge to a jury; or as to lapse of time, or scandal, impertinence, or insufficiency in a pleading; also, as in conveyancing, a clause by which the grantor excepts something before granted. Burrill.

A failing short; a becoming deficient; failure; deficiency; imperfection; weakness; lapse; fault; infirmity; as, a mental failing. And ever in her mind she cas about For that unnoticed failing in herself. Tennyson.

igned place in line; as, to fall in on the right. (c) To come to an end; to terminate; to lapse; as, on the death of Mr. B., the annuuity, which he had so long received, fell in. (d) To become operative. "The reversion, to which he had been nominated twenty years before, fell in." Macaulay. -- To fall into one's hands…

A hand [Slang & Obs.] "We clap our fambles." Beau. & Fl.

usting, guarding, parrying, etc. They fence and push, and, pushing, loudly roar; Their dewlaps and their sides are batDryden. As when a billow, blown against, Falls back, the voice with which I fenced A little ceased, but recommenced. Tennyson.

bad weather. Ham. Nav. Encyc. Fiddle beetle (Zoöl.), a Japanese carabid beetle (Damaster blaptoides); -- so called from the form of the body. -- Fiddle block (Naut.), a long tackle block having two sheaves of different diameters in the same plane, instead of side by side as in a common double block. Knight. -- Fiddle…

ace, inhabiting Northern and Eastern Europe, including the Magyars, Bulgarians, Permians, Lapps, and Finlanders. [Written also Fins.]

Pieces of metal, built into the joints of a wall, so as to lap over the edge of the gutters or to cover the edge of the roofing; also, similar pieces used to cover the valleys of roofs of slate, shingles, or the like. By extension, the metal covering of ridges and hips of roofs; also, in the United States, the protecti…