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A letter; an epistle. [Obs.] Chaucer. Dead letter, Drop letter, etc. See under Dead, Drop, etc. -- Letter book, a book in which copies of letters are kept. -- Letter box, a box for the reception of letters to be mailed or delivered. -- Letter carrier, a person who carries letters; a postman; specif., an officer of t…

r of the sea. After draining of the level in Northamptonshire. Sir M. Hale. Shot from the deadly level of a gun. Shak.

Bather. [Obs.] Chaucer. For lever had I die than see his deadly face. Spenser.

A dead body; a corpse. [Obs.] Lich fowl (Zoöl.), the European goatsucker; -- called also lich owl. -- Lich gate, a covered gate through which the corpse was carried to the church or burial place, and where the bier was placed to await clergyman; a corpse gate. [Prov. Eng.] Halliwell. -- Lich wake, the wake, or watchi…

life, or deprived of life; not containing, or inhabited by, living beings or vegetation; dead, or apparently dead; spiritless; powerless; dull; as, a lifeless carcass; lifeless matter; a lifeless desert; a lifeless wine; a lifeless story. -- Life"less*ly, adv. -- Life"less*ness, n.

That portion of the vibration of a balance during which the impulse is given. Saunier. Dead lift. See under Dead. Swift. -- Lift bridge, a kind of drawbridge, the movable part of which is lifted, instead of being drawn aside. -- Lift gate, a gate that is opened by lifting. -- Lift hammer. See Tilt hammer. -- Lift l…

light; -- often with up. Ah, hopeless, lasting flames I like those that burn To light the dead. Pope. One hundred years ago, to have lit this theater as brilliantly as it is now lighted would have cost, I suppose, fifty pounds. F. Harrison. The sun has set, and Vesper, to supply His absent beams, has lighted up the sky…

ine joining two centers, or fulcra, as of wheels or levers. (b) A line which determines a dead center. See Dead center, under Dead. -- Line of dip (Geol.), a line in the plane of a stratum, or part of a stratum, perpendicular to its intersection with a horizontal plane; the line of greatest inclination of a stratum to…

Having life; alive; living; not dead. If one man's ox hurt another's, that he die; then they shall sell the live ox, and divide the money of it. Ex. xxi. 35.

Fitted to cause loathing; exciting disgust; disgusting. The most loathsome and deadly forms of infection. Macaulay. -- Loath"some*ly. adv. -- Loath"some*ness, n.

-- The Lord's Day, Sunday; the Christian Sabbath, on which the Lord Jesus rose from the dead. -- The Lord's Prayer, the prayer which Jesus taught his disciples. Matt. vi. 9-13. -- The Lord's Supper. (a) The paschal supper partaken of by Jesus the night before his crucifixion. (b) The sacrament of the eucharist; the…

Virulence; deadly quality. His physicians discerned an invincible malignity in his disease. Hayward.

The benevolent spirits of the dead, especially of dead ancestors, regarded as family deities and protectors. Hail, O ye holy manes! Dryden.

A dead or dull finish, as in gilding where the gold leaf is not burnished, or in painting where the surface is purposely deprived of gloss.

type; copy; also, type set up and ready to be used, or which has been used, in printing. Dead matter (Print.), type which has been used, or which is not to be used, in printing, and is ready for distribution. -- Live matter (Print.), type set up, but not yet printed from. -- Matter in bar, Matter of fact. See under…

, in any way; possibly; at all. If by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead. Phil. iii. ll. -- By no means, or By no manner of means, not at all; certainly not; not in any degree. The wine on this side of the lake is by no means so good as that on the other. Addison.

commemorating, by decorating their graves with flowers, by patriotic exercises, etc., the dead soldiers and sailors who served the Civil War (1861-65) in the United States; Decoration Day. It is a legal holiday in most of the States. In the Southern States, the Confederate Memorial Day is: May 30 in Virginia; April 26…

ll; as, mephitic odors. Mephitic air (Chem.), carbon dioxide; -- so called because of its deadly suffocating power. See Carbonic acid, under Carbonic.

To bewail audibly; to lament. Ye floods, ye woods, ye echoes, moan My dear Columbo, dead and gone. Prior.

onastic usage or customs; -- now usually applied by way of reproach. Miters, and wretched dead mediæval monkeries. Carlyle.