Search the Dictionary

ore something else; antecedent; prior; as, previous arrangements; a previous illness. The dull sound . . . previous to the storm, Rolls o'er the muttering earth. Thomson. Previous question. (Parliamentary Practice) See under Question, and compare Closure. -- Previous to, before; -- often used adverbially for previousl…

ression or groove in the epiblast of the primitive streak. It is not connected with the medullary groove, which appears later and in front of it. -- Primitive plane (Spherical Projection), the plane upon which the projections are made, generally coinciding with some principal circle of the sphere, as the equator or a…

Dull; uninteresting; commonplace; unimaginative; prosy; as, a prosaic person. Ed. Rev. -- Pro*sa"ic*al*ly, adv. -- Pro*sa"ic*al*ness, n.

Hence, language which evinces little imagination or animation; dull and commonplace discourse.

Dull and tedious in discourse or writing; prosaic.

l.), any bird of the genus Bucco, or family Bucconidæ. They are small birds, usually with dull-colored and loose plumage, and have twelve tail feathers. See Barbet (b).

ed especially to several ropelike bundles or masses of fibers on the dorsal side of the medulla oblongata.

To blunt; to turn, as an edge; figuratively, to cause to be obtuse or dull; as, to retund confidence. Ray. Cudworth.

r pertaining to a rhonchus; produced by rhonchi. Rhonchial fremitus. Etym: [L. fremitus a dull roaring or murmuring.] (Med.) A vibration of the chest wall that may be felt by the hand laid upon its surface. It is caused in the production of rhonchi in the bronchial tubes.

An American singing bird (Merula migratoria), having the breast chestnut, or dull red. The upper parts are olive-gray, the head and tail blackish. Called also robin redbreast, and migratory thrush.

; to be bold, noisy, vaunting, or turbulent. I have a roisting challenge sent amongst The dull and factious nobles of the Greeks. Shak.

f the head, nape, wings, and tail, and white on the cheeks. The female and young male are dull brown mixed with blackish on the back; grayish below. Called also dunbird, dundiver, ruddy diver, stifftail, spinetail, hardhead, sleepy duck, fool duck, spoonbill, etc. -- Ruddy plover (Zoöl.) the sanderling.…

Fig.: To degenerate in idleness; to become dull or impaired by inaction. Must I rust in Egypt never more Appear in arms, and be the chief of Greece Dryden.

An inhabitant of the country, especially one who is rude, coarse, or dull; a clown. Hence to your fields, you rustics! hence, away. Pope.

Impaired by inaction, disuse, or neglect. [Hector,] in this dull and long-continued truce, Is rusty grown. Shak.

Dull; grave; dark; somber; -- said of colors. "Sad-colored clothes." Walton. Woad, or wade, is used by the dyers to lay the foundation of all sad colors. Mortimer.

To make dull- or sad-colored, as cloth.

ouse; in a more general sense, the specific name of the sage grouse. -- Sage green, of a dull grayish green color, like the leaves of garden sage. -- Sage grouse (Zoöl.), a very large American grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus), native of the dry sagebrush plains of Western North America. Called also cock of the plai…

Sap ball (Bot.), any large fungus of the genus Polyporus. See Polyporus. -- Sap green, a dull light green pigment prepared from the juice of the ripe berries of the Rhamnus catharticus, or buckthorn. It is used especially by water-color artists. -- Sap rot, the dry rot. See under Dry. -- Sap sucker (Zoöl.), any one…

it of Achras Sapota. It is about the size of an ordinary quince, having a rough, brittle, dull brown rind, the flesh being of a dirty yellowish white color, very soft, and deliciously sweet. Called also naseberry. It is eatable only when it begins to be spotted, and is much used in desserts.