Search the Dictionary

-- Finger stall, a cover or shield for a finger. -- Finger steel, a steel instrument for whetting a currier's knife. To burn one's fingers. See under Burn. -- To have a finger in, to be concerned in. [Colloq.] -- To have at one's fingers' ends, to be thoroughly familiar with. [Colloq.]

Ardor of passion, whether love or hate; excessive warmth; consumingviolence of temper. he had fire in his temper.Atterbury.

To float; to swim. [Obs.] "Whether I sink or flete." Chaucer.

Ornamentation by means of flower forms, whether closely imitated or conventionalized.

one or both of the sexual organs; an organ or combination of the organs of reproduction, whether inclosed by a circle of foliar parts or not. A complete flower consists of two essential parts, the stamens and the pistil, and two floral envelopes, the corolla and callyx. In mosses the flowers consist of a few special l…

To refuse; to decline; to give no heed. Thou shalt speak my words unto them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear. Ezek. ii. 7.

r, more generally, which changes, or tends to change, any physical relation between them, whether mechanical, thermal, chemical, electrical, magnetic, or of any other kind; as, the force of gravity; cohesive force; centrifugal force. Animal force (Physiol.), muscular force or energy. -- Catabiotic force Etym: [Gr. (Bi…

Like or pertaining to fossils; contained in rocks. whether petrified or not; as, fossil plants, shells. Fossil copal, a resinous substance, first found in the blue clay at Highgate, near London, and apparently a vegetable resin, partly changed by remaining in the earth. -- Fossil cork, flax, paper, or wood, varieties…

parts fitted and united together; a fabric; a structure; esp., the constructional system, whether of timber or metal, that gives to a building, vessel, etc., its model and strength; the skeleton of a structure. These are thy glorius works, Parent of good, Almighty! thine this universal frame. Milton.…

Apt to change the mind suddenly; whimsical; capricious. It may be a question whether the wife or the woman was the more freakish of the two. L'Estrange. Freakish when well, and fretful when she's sick. Pope. -- Freak"ish*ly, adv. -- Freak"ish*ness, n.

A plant, whether recent or fossil, which resembles a seaweed. See Fucoid, a.

The solemn rites used in the disposition of a dead human body, whether such disposition be by interment, burning, or otherwise; esp., the ceremony or solemnization of interment; obsequies; burial; -- formerly used in the plural. King James his funerals were performed very solemnly in the collegiate church at Westminste…

A vessel propelled by oars, whether having masts and sails or not; as:

night, boy Shak. I think, as the world goes, he was a good sort of man enough. Arbuthnot. Whether the cause goes for me or against me, you must pay me the reward. I Watts.

A piece of armor, whether of chain mail or of plate, defending the throat and upper part of the breast, and forming a part of the double breastplate of the 14th century.

A distortion of the countenance, whether habitual, from affectation, or momentary aad occasional, to express some feeling, as contempt, disapprobation, complacency, etc.; a smirk; a made-up face. Moving his face into such a hideons grimace, that every feature of it appeared under a different distortion. Addison.…

To wear down, polish, or sharpen, by friction; to make smooth, sharp, or pointed; to whet, as a knife or drill; to rub against one another, as teeth, etc.

One who works a gun, whether on land or sea; a cannoneer.

An outgrowth of the epidermis, consisting of one or of several cells, whether pointed, hooked, knobbed, or stellated. Internal hairs occur in the flower stalk of the yellow frog lily (Nuphar).

Consisting of some indefinite portion resembling a half; approximately a half, whether more or less; partial; imperfect; as, a half dream; half knowledge. Assumed from thence a half consent. Tennyson. Half ape (Zoöl.), a lemur. -- Half back. (Football) See under 2d Back. -- Half bent, the first notch, for the sear po…