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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.…

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…

To stand in doubt whether to proceed, or what to do; to h How long halt ye between two opinions 1 Kings xviii. 21

rence or taking place; chance; fortune; accident; casual event; fate; luck; lot. Chaucer. Whether art it was or heedless hap. Spenser. Cursed be good haps, and cursed be they that build Their hopes on haps. Sir P. Sidney. Loving goes by haps: Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps. Shak.

d as a means of giving public notification of the death of the deceased, his or her rank, whether married, widower, widow, etc. Called also achievement. His obscure funeral; No trophy, sword, or hatchment o'er his bones. Shak.

Holing a ball, whether the object ball (winning hazard) or the player's ball (losing hazard).

head; a headtire. Among birds the males very often appear in a most beautiful headdress, whether it be a crest, a comb, a tuft of feathers, or a natural little plume. Addison.

Without health, whether of body or mind; in firm. "A healthless or old age." Jer. Taylor.

Vigorous and efficient activity; power of fertile production; condition of the soil, whether good or bad. That the spent earth may gather heart again. Dryden.

ood. -- Heat rays, a term formerly applied to the rays near the red end of the spectrum, whether within or beyond the visible spectrum. -- Heat weight (Mech.), the product of any quantity of heat by the mechanical equivalent of heat divided by the absolute temperature; -- called also thermodynamic function, and entro…

matter in these sighs, these profound heaves, You must translate. Shak. None could guess whether the next heave of the earthquake would settle . . . or swallow them. Dryden.

Having one of the two florets in the same spikelet neuter, and the other unisexual, whether male or female; -- said of grasses.

ision or action; to be in suspense or uncertainty as to a determination; as, he hesitated whether to accept the offer or not; men often hesitate in forming a judgment. Pope.

Elevated in character or quality, whether moral or intellectual; preëminent; honorable; as, high aims, or motives. "The highest faculty of the soul." Baxter.

The act of holding, as in or with the hands or arms; the manner of holding, whether firm or loose; seizure; grasp; clasp; gripe; possession; -- often used with the verbs take and lay. Ne have I not twelve pence within mine hold. Chaucer. Thou should'st lay hold upon him. B. Jonson. My soul took hold on thee. Addison. T…

Flat; even; -- a term applied to surfaces and to spaces, whether real or imagined, in which the definitions, axioms, and postulates of Euclid respecting parallel straight lines are assumed to hold true.

One who receives or entertains another, whether gratuitosly or for compensation; one from whom another receives food, lodging, or entertainment; a landlord. Chaucer. "Fair host and Earl." Tennyson. Time is like a fashionable host, That slightly shakes his parting guest by the hand. Shak.