Search the Dictionary

t. [R.] "It is the hush of night." Byron. Hush money, money paid to secure silence, or to prevent the disclosure of facts. Swift.

nly checked forces part of it into the air chamber b, and up the pipe c, its return being prevented by a valve at the entrance to the air chamber, while the dropping of the valve a by its own weight allows another rush through the main pipe, and so on alternately. -- Hydraulic valve. (Mach.) (a) A valve for regulating…

A contrivance or apparatus to prevent the explosion of steam boilers.

Whatever annoys or impairs happiness, or prevents success; evil of any kind; misfortune; calamity; disease; pain; as, the ills of humanity. Who can all sense of others' ills escape Is but a brute at best in human shape. Tate. That makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of. Shak.…

To hinder; to impede; to prevent. [Obs.] These ungracious practices of his sons did impeach his journey to the Holy Land. Sir J. Davies. A defluxion on my throat impeached my utterance. Howell.

he land Have we marched on without impediment. Shak. Impediment in speech, a defect which prevents distinct utterance.

Having the property of preventing any other substance from occupying the same space at the same time.

Any oppressive encumbrance or burden; anything that prevents the free use of the faculties. Debt and usury is the incubus which weighs most heavily on the agricultural resources of Turkey. J. L. Farley.

of infecting. There was a strict order against coming to those pits, and that was only to prevent infection. De Foe.

he act of attaching a ring, clasp, or frame, to the genital organs in such a manner as to prevent copulation.

To prevent or hinder oxidation, rust, or decay; as, inoxidizing oils or varnishes.

To prevent the transfer o Insulating stool (Elec.), a stool with legs of glass or some other nonconductor of electricity, used for insulating a person or any object placed upon it.

The act of separating a body from others by nonconductors, so as to prevent the transfer of electricity or of heat; also, the state of a body so separated.

h and the report; nothing intervened ( i. e., between the intention and the execution) to prevent the undertaking.

; to surround of hem in with troops, so as to intercept succors of men and provisions and prevent escape; to lay siege to; as, to invest a town.

To prevent from being reconciled; to alienate or disaffect. [Obs.]

the insolence of a tyrant irritates his subjects. Dismiss the man, nor irritate the god: Prevent the rage of him who reigns above. Pope.

A hood or other device placed over a chimney or vent pipe, to prevent a back draught.

or anything, esp. a covering of some nonconducting material such as wood or felt, used to prevent radiation of heat, as from a steam boiler, cylinder, pipe, etc.

Any thick mass of rock which prevents miners from following the lode or vein.