Search the Dictionary

To fluctuate in mind or opinion; to be unsteady or inconstant; to waver.

A book or other thing that a person carries with him as a constant companion; a manual; a handbook.

century; also, one of the Northmen composing, at a later date, the imperial bodyguard at Constantinople.

Liable to vary; too susceptible of change; mutable; fickle; unsteady; inconstant; as, the affections of men are variable; passions are variable. Lest that thy love prove likewise variable. Shak. His heart, I know, how variable and vain! Milton. Variable exhaust (Steam Eng.), a blast pipe with an adjustable opening. --…

Changeable; uncertain; inconstant; variable. A man so various, that he seemed to be Not one, but all mankind's epitome. Dryden. The names of mixed modes . . . are very various. Locke.

Liable to be turned in opinion; changeable; variable; unsteady; inconstant; as versatile disposition.

to Motacilla and several allied genera of the family Motacillidæ. They have the habit of constantly jerking their long tails up and down, whence the name. Field wagtail, any one of several species of wagtails of the genus Budytes having the tail shorter, the legs longer, and the hind claw longer and straighter, than d…

To wear away by degrees; to impair gradually; to diminish by constant loss; to use up; to consume; to spend; to wear out. Until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness. Num. xiv. 33. O, were I able To waste it all myself, and leave ye none! Milton. Here condemned To waste eternal days in woe and pain. Milton. Wasted…

The act of watching; forbearance of sleep; vigil; wakeful, vigilant, or constantly observant attention; close observation; guard; preservative or preventive vigilance; formerly, a watching or guarding by night. Shepherds keeping watch by night. Milton. All the long night their mournful watch they keep. Addison.…

ns easily and frequently; one who veers with every change of current opinion; a fickle, inconstant person.

. The wild winds howl. Addison. Search then the ruling passion, there, alone The wild are constant, and the cunning known. Pope.

e that, then I am yours withal. Shak. How modest in exception, and withal How terrible in constant resolution. Shak.

s drawn from old rigging, made into spun yarn, foxes, sennit, and the like; also, to keep constantly at work upon needless matters, as a crew in order to punish them. R. H. Dana, Jr.

losed in a circle, as a symbol or emblem of Christ. It use as an emblem was introduced by Constantine the Great, whence it is known as the Constantinian symbol, or monogram. See Labarum.