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Careful or anxious to learn; eager for knowledge; given to research or inquiry; habitually inquisitive; prying; -- sometimes with after or of. It is a picurious after things that were elegant and beatiful should not have been as curious as to their origin, their uses, and their natural history. Woodward.…

insect that bores into the pith and kills currant bushes; specif., the larvae of a small clearwing moth (Ægeria tipuliformis) and a longicorn beetle (Psenocerus supernotatus). -- Currant worm (Zoöl.), an insect larva which eats the leaves or fruit of the currant. The most injurious are the currant sawfly (Nematus vent…

The building where customs and duties are paid, and where vessels are entered or cleared. Customhouse broker, an agent who acts for merchants in the business of entering and clearing goods and vessels.

The surface left by a cut; as, a smooth or clear cut.

ing strings or by the hand, as a child while he toddles. [Obs.] Little children when they learn to go By painful mothers daded to and fro. Drayton.

ask as many more officials to make expurgations and expunctions, that the commonwealth of learning be not damnified. Milton.

Not clear to the understanding; not easily The dark problems 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.

To cloud, obscure, or perplex; to render less clear or intelligible. Such was his wisdom that his confidence did seldom darkenhis foresight. Bacon. Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge Job. xxxviii. 2.

With imperfect light, clearness, or knowledge; obscurely; dimly; blindly; uncertainly. What fame to future times conveys but darkly down. Dryden. so softly dark and darkly pure. Byron.

Want of clearness or perspicuity; obscurity; as, the darkness of a subject, or of a discussion.

one's self; to behave or act in any affair or towards any one; to treat. If he will deal clearly and impartially, . . . he will acknowledge all this to be true. Tillotson.

educe; as, to debauch one's self by intemperance; to debauch a woman; to debauch an army. Learning not debauched by ambition. Burke. A man must have got his conscience thoroughly debauched and hardened before he can arrive to the height of sin. South. Her pride debauched her judgment and her eyes. Cowley.…

The act of pouring off a clear liquor gently from its lees or sediment, or from one vessel into another.

Free from ambiguity; unequivocal; unmistakable; unquestionable; clear; evident; as, a decided advantage. "A more decided taste for science." Prescott.

In a decided manner; indisputably; clearly; thoroughly.

alls. -- Deck transom (Shipbuilding), the transom into which the deck is framed. -- To clear the decks (Naut.), to remove every unnecessary incumbrance in preparation for battle; to prepare for action. -- To sweep the deck (Card Playing), to clear off all the stakes on the table by winning them.

Making declaration, explanation, or exhibition; making clear or manifest; affirmative; expressive; as, a clause declaratory of the will of the legislature. Declaratory act (Law), an act or statute which sets forth more clearly, and declares what is, the existing law.

To make clear; to free from obscurity. [Obs.] "To declare this a little." Boyle.

Profoundly book-learned. "Great writers and deep-read men." L'Estrange.

a note, deed, or bond; to deface a record. "This high face defaced." Emerson. So by false learning is good sense defaced. Pope.