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A low singing; a plain, artless melody.

A bill brought by a defendant, in an equity or chancery suit, against the plaintiff, respecting the matter in question in that suit. Bouvier.

onceit. He ruined himself and all that trusted in him by crotchets that he could never explain to any rational man. De Quincey.

Anything that is very puzzling or difficult to explain. Dr. Sheridan. The perpetual crux of New Testament chronologists. Strauss.

To complain loudly; to lament. -- To cry out against, to complain loudly of; to censure; to blame. -- To cry out on or upon, to denounce; to censure. "Cries out upon abuses." Shak. -- To cry to, to call on in prayer; to implore. -- To cry you mercy, to beg your pardon. "I cry you mercy, madam; was it you" Shak.…

ens, which by its motion was supposed to carry round all those within it), in order to explain certain movements of the heavently bodies. -- Crystalline lens (Anat.), the capsular lenslike body in the eye, serving to focus the rays of light. It consists of rodlike cells derived from the external embryonic epithelium.…

A sloping plain, esp. one with the upper end at the crest of a cliff; a hill or ridge with one face steep and the opposite face gently sloping. [Southwestern U. S.]

as, a tin cup, a silver cup, a wine cup; especially, in modern times, the pottery or porcelain vessel, commonly with a handle, used with a saucer in drinking tea, coffee, and the like.

on or inquiry; awakening surprise; inviting and rewarding inquisitiveness; not simple or plain; strange; rare. "Acurious tale" Shak. A multitude of curious analogies. Mocaulay. Many a quaint and curiousvolume of forgotten lore. E. A. Poe. Abstruse investigations in recondite branches of learning or sciense often bring…

nament. Thicker than the snaky locks That curledMegæra. Milton. Curling with metaphors a plain intention. Herbert.

lems of existence. Shairp. What may seem dark at the first, will afterward be found more plain. Hooker. What's your dark meaning, mouse, of this light word Shak.

e dealings with a person. Double dealing, insincere, treacherous dealing; duplicity. -- Plain dealing, fair, sincere, honorable dealing; honest, outspoken expression of opinion.

his banner, and the cause of religion was debated with the same ardor in Spain as on the plains of Palestine. Prescott.

defile, or other confined spot, into open ground; to issue. Battalions debouching on the plain. Prescott.

One who explains the decalogue. J. Gregory.

rusalem. Luke ix. 31. And I, the whilst you mourn for his decease, Will with my mourning plaints your plaint increase. Spenser.

To stamp; to detect; to discover. [R.] You are both deciphered, . . . For villains. Shak.

That part of the process in which the plaintiff sets forth in order and at large his cause of complaint; the narration of the plaintiff's case containing the count, or counts. See Count, n., 3. Declaration of Independence. (Amer. Hist.) See under Independence. -- Declaration of rights. (Eng. Hist) See Bill of rights,…

To make known by language; to communicate or manifest explicitly and plainly in any way; to exhibit; to publish; to proclaim; to announce. This day I have begot whom I declare My only Son. Milton. The heavens declare the glory of God. Ps. xix. 1.

To deny the right of the plaintiff in regard to (the suit, or the wrong charged); to oppose or resist, as a claim at law; to contest, as a suit. Burrill.