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which is seized to procure satisfaction. Bouvier. Kent. Burrill. If he were not paid, he would straight go and take a distress of goods and cattle. Spenser. The distress thus taken must be proportioned to the thing distrained for. Blackstone. Abuse of distress. (Law) See under Abuse.

To sing; to warble a little tune. Beasts fain would sing; birds ditty to their notes. Herbert.

To impart; to communicate. Which would not be To them [animals] made common and divulged. Milton.

ded by what. "Men are many times brought to that extremity, that were it not for God they would not know what to do with themselves." Tillotson. -- To have to do with, to have concern, business or intercourse with; to deal with. When preceded by what, the notion is usually implied that the affair does not concern the…

One who would apply to political or other practical concerns the abstract doctrines or the theories of his own philosophical system; a propounder of a new set of opinions; a dogmatic theorist. Used also adjectively; as, doctrinaire notions.

A kind of woolen stuff. [Obs.] "Some doily petticoats." Dryden. A fool and a doily stuff, would now and then find days of grace, and be worn for variety. Congreve.

alleging several matters in answer to the declaration, where either of such matters alone would be a sufficient bar to the action. Stephen. -- Double point (Geom.), a point of a curve at which two branches cross each other. Conjugate or isolated points of a curve are called double points, since they possess most of th…

nk or state, reputation or happiness; destruction; ruin. Dire were the consequences which would follow the downfall of so important a place. Motley.

by beasts of burden, and the like. A general custom of using oxen for all sort of draught would be, perhaps, the greatest improvement. Sir W. Temple.

such a room; also, a reception of company in it; as, to hold a drawing-room. He [Johnson] would amaze a drawing-room by suddenly ejaculating a clause of the Lord's Prayer. Macaulay. Drawing-room car. See Palace car, under Car.

Homely; rude; coarse. [Obs.] By my troth, though I am plain and dudgeon, I would not be an ass. Beau. & Fl.

e or keep small; to stunt. Addison. Even the most common moral ideas and affections . . . would be stunted and dwarfed, if cut off from a spiritual background. J. C. Shairp.

One who accounts for material phenomena by a theory of dynamics. Those who would resolve matter into centers of force may be said to constitute the school of dynamists. Ward (Dyn. Sociol. ).

Privilege of being kindly heard; favor; attention. Dionysius . . . would give no ear to his suit. Bacon. Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears. Shak. About the ears, in close proximity to; near at hand. -- By the ears, in close contest; as, to set by the ears; to fall together by the ears; to be by the ears.…

A part of this globe; a region; a country; land. Would I had never trod this English earth. Shak.

ant sound. -- To applaud to the echo, to give loud and continuous applause. M. Arnold. I would applaud thee to the very echo, That should applaud again. Shak.

nd overmastering joy or enthusiasm; rapture; enthusiastic delight. He on the tender grass Would sit, and hearken even to ecstasy. Milton.

igious knowledge; to teach. It does not appear probable that our dispute [about miracles] would either edify or enlighten the public. Gibbon.

ither of the three. Bacon. There have been three talkers in Great British, either of whom would illustrate what I say about dogmatists. Holmes.

To push or hit with the elbow, as when one pushes by another. They [the Dutch] would elbow our own aldermen off the Royal Exchange. Macaulay. To elbow one's way, to force one's way by pushing with the elbows; as, to elbow one's way through a crowd.