Search the Dictionary

As the crow flies, in a direct line. -- To pick a crow, To pluck a crow, to state and adjust a difference or grievance (with any one).

A swelling on the back part of the hind leg of a horse, just behind the lowest part of the hock joint, generally causing lameness. James Law. Curb bit, a stiff bit having branches by which a leverage is obtained upon the jaws of horse. Knight. -- Curb pins (Horology), the pins on the regulator which restrain the hairs…

Any court of justice.

nt. [Obs.] Custos rotulorum (r Etym: [LL., keeper of the rolls] (Eng. Law), the principal justice of the peace in a county, who is also keeper of the rolls and records of the sessions of the peace.

A hindoo hall of justice. Malcom.

To walk unsteadily, as a child in leading strings, or just learning to walk; to move slowly. [Obs.] No sooner taught to dade, but from their mother trip. Drayton.

A person employed by officers of justice, or parties exposed to injury, to induce a suspected person to commit an offense under circumstances that will lead to his detection.

Protecting plea; vindication; justification. Men, brethren, and fathers, hear ye my defense. Acts xxii. 1.

That which defends; a safeguard. Wars preventive, upon just fears, are true defensive. Bacon. To be on the defensive, To stand on the defensive, to be or stand in a state or posture of defense or resistance, in opposition to aggression or attack.

or provoking to combat; a challenge; a provocation; a summons to combat. A war without a just defiance made. Dryden. Stood for her cause, and flung defiance down. Tennyson.

To discharge. [Obs.] As soon as the party . . . before our justices shall be depeached. Hakluyt.

To put under oath. [Obs.] Depose him in the justice of his cause. Shak.

That which is deserved; the reward or the punishment justly due; claim to recompense, usually in a good sense; right to reward; merit. According to their deserts will I judge them. Ezek. vii. 27. Andronicus, surnamed Pius For many good and great deserts to Rome. Shak. His reputation falls far below his desert. A. Hamil…

According to desert (whether good or evil); justly.

t and exhibit; to designate; to indicate; to show; to point out; to appoint. We shall see Justice design the victor's chivalry. Shak. Meet me to-morrow where the master And this fraternity shall design. Beau. & Fl.

vided with one or more plates having numbers or letters upon them. These plates must be adjusted in a certain determined way before the lock can be operated. -- Dial plate, the plane or disk of a dial or timepiece on which lines and figures for indicating the time are placed.

A court of justice; judgment hall. [R.] J. S. Mill.

erent; to distinguish. Thou mayest difference gods from men. Chapman. Kings, in receiving justice and undergoing trial, are not differenced from the meanest subject. Milton. So completely differenced by their separate and individual characters that we at once acknowledge them as distinct persons. Sir W. Scott.…

ecisions analytically arranged. The term is applied in a general sense to the Pandects of Justinian (see Pandect), but is also specially given by authors to compilations of laws on particular topics; a summary of laws; as, Comyn's Digest; the United States Digest. A complete digest of Hindu and Mahommedan laws after th…

Exactly; just. Stand you directly in Antonius' way. Shak.