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e forms, and for holding their stout anterior legs in a manner suggesting hands folded in prayer. The common American species is M. Carolina. Mantis shrimp. (Zoöl.) See Sguilla.

A prayer; an invocation; a religious formula; a charm. [India]

injury to, esp. by cutting off or defacing a part; to impair; to disfigure; to deface. I pray you mar no more trees with wiring love songs in their barks. Shak. But mirth is marred, and the good cheer is lost. Dryden. Ire, envy, and despair Which marred all his borrowed visage. Milton.

To take particular notice; to observe critically; to note; to remark. Mark, I pray you, and see how this man seeketh maschief. 1 Kings xx. 7.

Morning worship or service; morning prayers or songs. The winged choristers began To chirp their matins. Cleveland.

hy ye may not be lawfully joined together in matrimony, ye do now confessit. Book of Com. Prayer (Eng. Ed. )

Desire or wish, as in prayer, imprecation, benediction, and the like. "May you live happily." Dryden. May be, and It may be, are used as equivalent to possibly, perhaps, by chance, peradventure. See 1st Maybe.

atience; characterized by mildness or patience; as, a meek answer; a meek face. "Her meek prayer." Chaucer.

to a mosque and surrounded by one or more projecting balconies, from which the summon to prayer is cried by the muezzin.

lace not recollected; to lose. The... charter, indeed, was unfortunately mislaid: and the prayer of their petition was to obtain one of like import in its stead. Hallam.

A Mohammedan crier of the hour of prayer. [Written also mouezzin, mueddin, and muwazzin.]

To reduce (as a liquid) to a fine spray or vapor; to atomize.

or want; needy; distressing. [Archaic] Chaucer. The needful time of trouble. Bk. of Com. Prayer.

Prayers offered up for nine successive days.

rest and travel made him a new man. Steadfasty purposing to lead a new life. Bk. of Com. Prayer. Men after long emaciating diets, fat, and almost new. Bacon.

To utter in a nasal manner; to pronounce with a nasal twang; as, to nose a prayer. [R.] Cowley.

To get hold of by effort; to gain possession of; to procure; to acquire, in any way. Some pray for riches; riches they obtain. Dryden. By guileful fair words peace may be obtained. Shak. It may be that I may obtain children by her. Gen. xvi. 2.

To present, as an act of worship; to immolate; to sacrifice; to present in prayer or devotion; -- often with up. Thou shalt offer every day a bullock for a sin offering for atonement. Ex. xxix. 36. A holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices. 1 Pet. ii. 5.

In equity proceedings, one who prays for relief; a petitioner.

A place of orisons, or prayer; especially, a chapel or small room set apart for private devotions. An oratory [temple] . . . in worship of Dian. Chaucer. Do not omit thy prayers for want of a good oratory, or place to pray in. Jer. Taylor. Fathers of the Oratory (R. C. Ch.), a society of priests founded by St. Philip N…