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an immense size, and have their seeds enveloped in a cottony substance, which is used for stuffing cushions, but can not be spun. -- Silk flower. (Bot.) (a) The silk tree. (b) A similar tree (Calliandra trinervia) of Peru. -- Silk fowl (Zoöl.), a breed of domestic fowls having silky plumage. -- Silk gland (Zoöl.), a…

Rambling; disorderly; unconnected. [Colloq.] Such a deal of skimble-scamble stuff. Shak.

Thick; viscous. They present you with a cup, and you must drink of a slabby stuff. Selden.

cotch coin worth about 2 -- Small register. See the Note under 1st Register, 7. -- Small stuff (Naut.), spun yarn, marline, and the smallest kinds of rope. R. H. Dana, Jr. -- Small talk, light or trifling conversation; chitchat. -- Small wares (Com.), various small textile articles, as tapes, braid, tringe, and the…

A composer of sonnets, or small poems; a small poet; -- usually in contempt. What woful stuff this madrigal would be In some starved hackney sonneteer or me! Pope.

to deface; hence, to destroy by misuse; to waste. [Obs.] They [the colors] disfigure the stuff and spill the whole workmanship. Puttenham. Spill not the morning, the quintessence of day, in recreations. Fuller.

A thickly stuffed cushion; especially, one used for the seat of a sofa, couch, or chair; also, a sofa. Punching the squab of chairs and sofas. Dickens. On her large squab you find her spread. Pope.

Shak. When that the poor have cried, Cæsar hath wept; Ambition should be made of sterner stuff. Shak. Stern as tutors, and as uncles hard. Dryden. These barren rocks, your stern inheritance. Wordsworth.

To stuff; to crowd; to fill full; hence, to make hot and close; to render stifling. Sandys. His chamber was commonly stived with friends or suitors of one kind or other. Sir H. Wotton.

A narrow band of silk or stuff, sometimes enriched with embroidery and jewels, worn on the left shoulder of deacons, and across both shoulders of bishops and priests, pendent on each side nearly to the ground. At Mass, it is worn crossed on the breast by priests. It is used in various sacred functions. Groom of the sto…

A seat without arms or back, cushioned and stuffed: a high stool; -- so called from its resemblance to a drum.

A fine, smooth stuff of silk, having usually the wavy luster called watering. The term has also been applied to different kinds of silk goods, from the 16th century to modern times. Lined with taffeta and with sendal. Chaucer.

f linen or other thread by hand, the designs being usually more or less pictorial and the stuff employed for wall hangings and the like. The term is also applied to different kinds of embroidery. Tapestry carpet, a kind of carpet, somewhat resembling Brussels, in which the warp is printed before weaving, so as to produ…

Worked or figured stuff; tapestry. [R.] Spenser.

urks and other Eastern nations, sometimes alone and sometimes swathed with linen or other stuff to make a turban. See Fez.

An artificial dyestuff obtained as an orange-yellow powder, and regarded as a phenyl hydrazine derivative of tartaric and sulphonic acids.

An artificial red or violet dyestuff consisting of a complex sulphur derivative of certain aromatic diamines, and obtained as a dark crystalline powder; -- called also phenylene violet.

A red or violet dyestuff having a greenish metallic luster. It is produced artificially, by the chemical dehydration of thionine, as a brown amorphous powder.

nching stem, and forms great hanging tufts on the branches of trees. It is often used for stuffing mattresses.

A fine transparent silk stuff, used for veils, etc.; specifically, cloth interwoven with gold or silver threads, or embossed with figures. A robe of tissue, stiff with golden wire. Dryden. In their glittering tissues bear emblazed Holy memorials. Milton.