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An extremely adhesive viscid substance, usually made of the middle bark of the holly, by boiling, fermenting, and cleansing it. When a twig is smeared with this substance it will hold small birds which may light upon it. Hence: Anything which insnares. Not birdlime or Idean pitch produce A more tenacious mass of clammy…

A coarse kind of thick woolen cloth, worn by the poor in the Middle Ages; also, a woolen cap or hood worn over the shoulders or over the head.

Payment of money exacted by means of intimidation; also, extortion of money from a person by threats of public accusation, exposure, or censure.

The four large shell plates on the sides, and the five large ones of the middle, of the carapace of the sea turtle, which yield the best tortoise shell. De Colange.

ccompanied with heat; as, to seek shelter from the blaze of the sun. O dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon! Milton.

An act of bluffing; an expression of self-confidence for the purpose of intimidation; braggadocio; as, that is only bluff, or a bluff.

of syllogism of which the first and third propositions are particular negatives, and the middle term a universal affirmative. Baroko and Bocardo have been stumbling blocks to the logicians. Bowen.

to cause to sink and stick, as in mud and mire. At another time, he was bogged up to the middle in the slough of Lochend. Sir W. Scott.

rom the English by the change of the second stretcher line so that its joints come in the middle of the first, and the same position of stretchers comes back every fifth line; Combined cross and English bond, where the inner part of the wall is laid in the one method, the outer in the other.

The cobia or crab eater (Elacate canada), an edible fish of the Middle and Southern United States.

Advancing or increasing amid noisy excitement; as, booming prices; booming popularity. [Colloq. U. S.]

A man of middle rank in society; one of the shopkeeping class. [France.] a.

The French middle class, particularly such as are concerned in, or dependent on, trade.

trail, especially of man; a gut; -- generally used in the plural. He burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out. Acts i. 18.

A rope fastened near the middle of the leech or perpendicular edge of the square sails, by subordinate ropes, called bridles, and used to keep the weather edge of the sail tight forward, when the ship is closehauled. Bowline bridles, the ropes by which the bowline is fastened to the leech of the sail. -- Bowline knot.…

or ventricles, and the walls thicken unequally and become the three segments, the fore-, mid-, and hind-brain.

A large rope to fasten the midship part of a ship to a wharf, or to another vessel.

breathing, below. Breathing place. (a) A pause. "That cæsura, or breathing place, in the midst of the verse." Sir P. Sidney. (b) A vent. -- Breathing time, pause; relaxation. Bp. Hall. -- Breathing while, time sufficient for drawing breath; a short time. Shak. -- Rough breathing (spiritus asper) (. See 2d Asper, n.…

Characterized by, or having, breezes; airy. "A breezy day in May." Coleridge. 'Mid lawns and shades by breezy rivulets fanned. Wordsworth.

By confusion, a midsummer hot wind from the north.