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A sort of family chapel in the houses of the Romans, devoted to a special divinity.

Consecrated; dedicated; devoted; -- with to. A temple, sacred to the queen oflove. Dryden.

ehalf of a higher object, or to a claim deemed more pressing; hence, also, the thing so devoted or given up; as, the sacrifice of interest to pleasure, or of pleasure to interest.

alling in various directions; not united or agregated; divided among many; as, scattering votes.

One learned in science; a scientific investigator; one devoted to scientific study; a savant. [Recent]

ratch a ticket, to cancel one or more names of candidates on a party ballot; to refuse to vote the party ticket in its entirety. [U.S.]

or monastery, the room set apart for writing or copying manuscripts; in general, a room devoted to writing. Writing rooms, or scriptoria, where the chief works of Latin literature . . . were copied and illuminated. J. R. Green.

A scrutinizer; specifically, an examiner of votes, as at an election.

he measures of administration; to scrutinize the conduct or motives of individuals. Whose votes they were obliged to scrutinize. Ayliffe. Thscrutinized his face the closest. G. W. Cable.

A ticket, or little paper billet, on which a vote is written.

One devoted to a sect; a soetary. [R.]

The act of devoting one's self, or the state of being self- devoted; willingness to sacrifice one's own advantage or happiness for the sake of others; self-sacrifice.

Devoted to the pleasures of sense and appetite; luxurious; voluptuous; lewd; libidinous. No small part of virtue consists in abstaining from that wherein sensual men place their felicity. Atterbury.

The quality or state of being sensual; devotedness to the gratification of the bodily appetites; free indulgence in carnal or sensual pleasures; luxuriousness; voluptuousness; lewdness. Those pampered animals That rage in savage sensuality. Shak. They avoid dress, lest they should have affections tainted by any sensual…

ys 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 or crystal supposed to have the property of exhibiting images of persons or things not present, indicating in that way future events.

The pivoted or swinging bar to which the traces of a harnessed horse are fixed; a whiffletree.

A peculiar species of poetry, for the most part devoted to moral and religious topics, and commonly satirical, -- often used by the troubadours of the Middle Ages.

One who treats of, or devotes himself to, the study of sociology. J. S. Mill.

A chemist, esp. one devoted to alchemistic pursuits. [Obs.]

d from the general issue. Bouvier. -- Special pleader (Law), originally, a counsel who devoted himself to drawing special counts and pleas; in a wider sense, a lawyer who draws pleadings. -- Special pleading (Law), the allegation of special or new matter, as distingiushed from a direct denial of matter previously all…