Search the Dictionary

A sharp, shrill outcry or scream; a shrill wild cry such as is caused by sudden or extreme terror, pain, or the like. Shrieks, clamors, murmurs, fill the frighted town. Dryden. Shriek owl. (Zoöl.) (a) The screech owl. (b) The swift; -- so called from its cry.

nd, that blows occasionally in Arabia, Syria, and neighboring countries, generated by the extreme heat of the parched deserts or sandy plains.

Border; edge; margin; extreme part of anything "Here in the skirts of the forest." Shak.

of the genus Mephitis and allied genera. They have two glands near the anus, secreting an extremely fetid liquid, which the animal ejects at pleasure as a means of defense.

rclass, as prescribed for the season of 1911, the aggregate of the length on water line, extreme beam, and extreme draft must be not more than 32 feet; the weight, not less than 4,035 pounds (without crew); the sail area, not more than 550 square yards; and the cost of construction (for American boats) not more than $…

To make haste; to move with celerity. I have speeded hither with the very extremest inch of possibility. Shak.

One of two or more persons or gangs who work by spells. [R.] Their toil is so extreme that they can not endure it above four hours in a day, but are succeeded by spells. Garew.

hyte, with great differentiation of its parts (root, stem, leaves, flowers, etc.); by the extreme reduction of the gametophyte; and by the development of seeds. All the Spermatophyta are heterosporous; fertilization of the egg cell is either through a pollen tube emitted by the microspore or (in a few gymnosperms) by s…

Dirty through neglect; foul; filthy; extremely dirty. Uncomed his locks, and squalid his attrie. Dryden. Those squalid dens, which are the reproach of large capitals. Macaulay.

To perish with hunger; to suffer extreme hunger or want; to be very indigent. Sometimes virtue starves, while vice is fed. Pope.

Fig.: Anything of extreme hardness; that which is characterized by sternness or rigor. "Heads of steel." Johnson. "Manhood's heart of steel." Byron.

Of or pertaining to a stentor; extremely loud; powerful; as, a stentorian voice; stentorian lungs.

Extremely close and covetous; meanly avaricious; niggardly; miserly; penurious; as, a stingy churl. A stingy, narrow-hearted fellow that had a deal of choice fruit, had not the heart to touch it till it began to be rotten. L'estrange.

e of merriment or other emotion. -- A straight line. "That which lies evenly between its extreme points." Euclid. "The shortest line between two points." Chauvenet. "A line which has the same direction through its whole length." Newcomb. -- Straight-way valve, a valve which, when opened widely, affords a straight pas…

The quality or state of being stupid; extreme dullness of perception or understanding; insensibility; sluggishness.

Exposed; liable; prone; disposed; as, a country subject to extreme heat; men subject to temptation. All human things are subject to decay. Dryden.

Acknowledgement of a fault; confession of error. Be not as extreme in submission As in offense. Shak.

Refinement; subtlety; extreme attenuation.

Refinement; extreme acuteness; subtlety. Intelligible discourses are spoiled by too much subtility in nice divisions. Locke.

sses of Mohammedans, particularly in Persia, who hold to a kind of pantheism and practice extreme asceticism in their lives. [Written also sofism.]