Search the Dictionary

The act of repositing; a laying up.

To keep delaying; to continue to hinder; to prevent from progress; to render more slow in progress; to impede; to hinder; as, to retard the march of an army; to retard the motion of a ship; -- opposed to Ant: accelerate.

The act of retarding; hindrance; the act of delaying; as, the retardation of the motion of a ship; -- opposed to Ant: acceleration. The retardations of our fluent motion. De Quinsey.

s partner; as, to return a trump; to return a diamond for a club. To return a lead (Card Playing), to lead the same suit led by one's partner.

To exceed an adversary's wager in card playing. [Obs.]

risk, quick trot. Addison. -- Round turn (Naut.), one turn of a rope round a timber, a belaying pin, etc. -- To bring up with a round turn, to stop abruptly. [Colloq.]

, with one or more sets of spaces graduated and numbered on its surface, for measuring or laying off distances, etc., as in drawing, plotting, and the like. See Gunter's scale.

Tending to calm, moderate, or tranquilize; specifically (Med.), allaying irritability and irritation; assuaging pain.

A wind instrument whose sounding parts are reeds, consisting of a thin tongue of brass playing freely through a slot in a plate. It has a case, like a piano, and is played by means of a similar keybord, the bellows being worked by the foot. The melodeon is a portable variety of this instrument.

e, the set is usually called a deuce set, and decided by an application of the rules for playing off deuce in a game. See Deuce.

The act of laying on a shelf, or on the shelf; putting off or aside; as, the shelving of a claim.

A change of the position of the hand on the finger board, in playing the violin. To make shift, to contrive or manage in an exigency. "I shall make shift to go without him." Shak. [They] made a shift to keep their own in Ireland. Milton.

sity carried round as a show. -- Show card, an advertising placard; also, a card for displaying samples. -- Show case, a gla -- Show glass, a glass which displays objects; a mirror. -- Show of hands, a raising of hands to indicate judgment; as, the vote was taken by a show of hands. -- Show stone, a piece of glass…

A piece of dining-room furniture having compartments and shelves for keeping or displaying articles of table service. At a stately sideboard, by the wine, That fragrant smell diffused. Milton.

en by the ordinary, of a man's standing excommunicate by the space of forty days, for the laying him up in prison till he submit himself to the authority of the church. Crabb.

tead of a faithful and painful teacher, they hire a Sir John, which hath better skill in playing at tables, or in keeping of a garden, than in God's word. Latimer.

The time during which one sits while doing something, as reading a book, playing a game, etc. For the understanding of any one of St. Paul's Epistles I read it all through at one sitting. Locke.

Possessed of, or displaying, skill; knowing and ready; expert; well-versed; able in management; as, a skillful mechanic; -- often followed by at, in, or of; as, skillful at the organ; skillful in drawing. And they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skillful of lamentations to wailing. Amos v. 16.…

pertaining to a snake or snakes; resembling a snake; serpentine; winding. The red light playing upon its gilt and carving gave it an appearance of snaky life. L. Wallace.

To bite or seize suddenly, especially with the teeth. He, by playing too often at the mouth of death, has been snapped by it at last. South.