Search the Dictionary

One of a pair of peculiar organs on the base of the abdomen of scorpions.

urtesy by which nations recognize within their own territory, or in their courts, the peculiar institutions of another nation or the rights and privileges acquired by its citizens in their own land. By some authorities private international law rests on this comity, but the better opinion is that it is part of the comm…

o have control of; to have at one's disposal; to lead. Monmouth commanded the English auxiliaries. Macaulay. Such aid as I can spare you shall command. Shak.

Social intercourse; the dealings of one person or class in society with another; familiarity. Fifteen years of thought, observation, and commerce with the world had made him [Bunyan] wiser. Macaulay.

nt or subordinate employee in a public office, hotel, or the like. The commissionaire familiar to European travelers performs miscellaneous services as a light porter, messenger, solicitor for hotels, etc.

A familiar for the flagchip, or for the principal vessel of a squadron or fleet.

In common; familiary. [Obs.] Spenser.

ilton. He useth this endearing compellation, "My little children." Bp. Beveridge. The peculiar compellation of the kings in France is by "Sire," which is nothing else but father. Sir W. Temple.

o the tidal air, by the deepest possible inspiration. -- Complemental males (Zoöl.), peculiar small males living parasitically on the ordinary hermaphrodite individuals of certain barnacles.

A composition for billiard balls.

Possessing peculiarities that are characteristic of several diverse groups.

Familiar talk or conversation. [Colloq.]

To talk familiarly together; to chat; to prattle. I shall not ask Jean Jaques Rousseau If birds confabulate or no. Cowper.

Familiar talk; easy, unrestrained, unceremonious conversation. Friends' confabulations are comfortable at all times, as fire in winter. Burton.

Of the nature of familiar talk; in the form of a dialogue. Weever.

A peculiar kind of reproductive cell found in certain fungi, and often containing zoöspores.

A peculiar toothlike fossil of many forms, found especially in carboniferous rocks. Such fossils are supposed by some to be the teeth of marsipobranch fishes, but they are probably the jaws of annelids.

ng or putting together the parts of anything; structure; arrangement. An astrolabe of peculiar construction. Whewell.

A method of pronouncing Latin and Greek in which the vowels have their more familiar Continental values, as in German and Italian, the consonants being pronounced mostly as in English. The stricter form of this method of pronouncing Latin approaches the Roman, the modified form the English, pronunciation. The Continent…

Living or messing together; familiar; in companionship. Humble folk ben Christes friends: they ben contubernial with the Lord, thy King. Chaucer.