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o walk the plank, to walk along a plank laid across the bulwark of a ship, until one overbalances it and falls into the sea; -- a method of disposing of captives practiced by pirates.

A kind of balance used in raising and letting down a drawbridge. It consists of timbers joined in the form of a St. Andrew's cross. (b) pl.

A variety of jade or nephrite, -- used in New Zealand for the manufacture of axes and weapons.

The weight, or mass of metal, used in weighing, to balance the substance weighed.

The balancer of dipterous insects.

re with regard to the several principal members by which action is expressed; attitude. Atalanta, the posture of whose limbs was so lively expressed . . . one would have sworn the very picture had run. Sir P. Sidney. In most strange postures We have seen him set himself. Shak. The posture of a poetic figure is a descri…

A ropedancer's balancing pole. Johnson.

Preponderating; outweighing; overbalancing; -- used literally and figuratively; as, a preponderant weight; of preponderant importance. -- Pre*pon"der*ant*ly, adv.

To outweigh; to overpower by weight; to exceed in weight; to overbalance. An inconsiderable weight, by distance from the center of the balance, will preponderate greater magnitudes. Glanvill.

nce of reality or truth. The whole life of man is a perpetual comparison of evidence and balancing of probabilities. Buckminster. We do not call for evidence till antecedent probabilities fail. J. H. Newman.

urchased, or obtained for a consideration; hence, venal; corrupt. Money being the counterbalance to all things purchasable by it, as much as you take off from the value of money, so much you add to the price of things exchanged. Locke.

Square; even; balanced; equal; exact. [Archaic] " A quadrate, solid, wise man." Howell.

round pigeons belonging to Geotrygon and allied genera. -- Quail hawk (Zoöl.), the New Zealand sparrow hawk (Hieracidea Novæ-Hollandiæ). -- Quail pipe. See Quail call, above. -- Quail snipe (Zoöl.), the dowitcher, or red-breasted snipe; -- called also robin snipe, and brown snipe. -- Sea quail (Zoöl.), the turnston…

A New Zealand forest tree (Metrosideros robusta), also, its hard dark red wood, used by the Maoris for paddles and war clubs.

ground of argument. I'll give him reasons for it. Shak. The reason of the motion of the balance in a wheel watch is by the motion of the next wheel. Sir M. Hale. This reason did the ancient fathers render, why the church was called "catholic." Bp. Pearson. Virtue and vice are not arbitrary things; but there is a natur…

To conclude, as by an enumeration and balancing of chances; hence, to think; to suppose; -- followed by an objective clause; as, I reckon he won't try that again. [Prov. Eng. & Colloq. U. S.]

ontrols the effective length of the hairspring, and thus regulates the vibrations of the balance. (b) The governor of a steam engine. (c) A valve for controlling the admission of steam to the steam chest, in a locomotive.

The striking of a balance at regular intervals in a running account. "An account is said to be taken with annual or semiannual rests." Abbott.

To turn upside down; to invert. A pyramid reversed may stand upon his point if balanced by admirable skill. Sir W. Temple.

A malvaceous tree (Hoheria populnea) of New Zealand, the bark of which is used for cordage.