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A missile, usually of lead, and round or elongated in form, to be discharged from a rifle, musket, pistol, or other small firearm.

A tool with a hard, smooth, rounded end or surface, as of steel, ivory, or agate, used in smoothing or polishing by rubbing. It has a variety of forms adapted to special uses.

A piece of wood or metal, usually flat and elongated, turning on a nail or screw, to fasten something, as a door.

To propagate evil reports with a design to injure the reputation of another; to make purposely false charges of some offense or crime.

A small and beautiful species of orchid, having a flower variegated with purple, pink, and yellow. It grows in cold and wet localities in the northern part of the United States. The Calypso borealis is the only orchid which reaches 68º N.

A groove in any cylinder; specif., a groove around the cylinder of an elongated bullet for small arms to contain a lubricant, or around the rotating band of a gun projectile to lessen the resistance offered to the rifling. Also, a groove around the base of a cartridge, where the extractor takes hold. --Can"ne*lured (#)…

ow often applied to a missile of any shape, whether solid or hollow, made for cannon. Elongated and cylindrical missiles are sometimes called bolts; hollow ones charged with explosives are properly called shells. -- Cannon bullet, a cannon ball. [Obs.] -- Cannon cracker, a fire cracker of large size. -- Cannon lock,…

A beetle (Lytta, or Cantharis, vesicatoria), having an elongated cylindrical body of a brilliant green color, and a nauseous odor; the blister fly or blister beetle, of the apothecary; -- also called Spanish fly. Many other species of Lytta, used for the same purpose, take the same name. See Blister beetle, under Blist…

noun, pronoun, or adjective, which indicate its relation to other words, and in the aggregate constitute its declension; the relation which a noun or pronoun sustains to some other word. Case is properly a falling off from the nominative or first state of word; the name for which, however, is now, by extension of its…

One who castigates or corrects.

ove anything erroneous, or objectionable from, as the obscene parts of a writing; to expurgate. My . . . correspondent . . . has sent me the following letter, which I have castrated in some places. Spectator.

That by which anything is caught or temporarily fastened; as, the catch of a gate.

meadow irrigated by water from a spring or rivulet on the side of hill.

To question or interrogate; to examine or try by questions; -- sometimes with a view to reproof, by eliciting from a person answers which condemn his own conduct. Swift.

persons belonging to a party, to nominate candidates for public office, or to select delegates to a nominating convention, or to confer regarding measures of party policy; a political primary meeting. This day learned that the caucus club meets, at certain times, in the garret of Tom Dawes, the adjutant of the Boston…

d causeway will direct your way. Dryden. The other way Satan went down The causey to Hell-gate. Milton.

The aggregate of a hundred single things; specifically, a century. "Every centenary of years." Hakewill.

A hundred; as, a century of sonnets; an aggregate of a hundred things. [Archaic.] And on it said a century of prayers. Shak.

To variegate or diversify with different qualities, color, scenes, or events; esp., to subject to frequent alternations of prosterity and adversity. Our minds are, as it were, checkered with truth and falsehood. Addison.

Diversified or variegated in a marked manner, as in appearance, character, circumstances, etc. This checkered narrative. Macaulay.