Search the Dictionary

ross. -- Latin races, a designation sometimes loosely given to certain nations, esp. the French, Spanish, and Italians, who speak languages principally derived from Latin. Latin Union, an association of states, originally comprising France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy, which, in 1865, entered into a monetary agree…

d in a mortgage for the payment of the money to secure which it was given. [U. S.] -- Law French, the dialect of Norman, which was used in judicial proceedings and law books in England from the days of William the Conqueror to the thirty-sixth year of Edward III. -- Law language, the language used in legal writings an…

tarried there yet a good while, and then took his leave of the brethren. Acts xviii. 18. French leave. See under French.

A group of orders inferior to a class. Legion of honor, an order instituted by the French government in 1802, when Bonaparte was First Consul, as a reward for merit, both civil and military.

A French copper coin of one fourth the value of a sou.

A lay; a German song. It differs from the French chanson, and the Italian canzone, all three being national. The German Lied is perhaps the most faithful reflection of the national sentiment. Grove.

An Italian coin equivalent in value to the French franc.

A French money of account, afterward a silver coin equal to 20 sous. It is not now in use, having been superseded by the franc.

A fit of lunacy or madness; a period of frenzy; a crazy or unreasonable freak. [Obs.] These dangerous, unsafe lunes i' the king. Shak.

A French lyceum, or secondary school supported by the French government, for preparing students for the university.

My lady; -- a French title formerly given to ladies of quality; now, in France, given to all married women. Chaucer.

A French title of courtesy given to a girl or an unmarried lady, equivalent to the English Miss. Goldsmith.

Frenzy; ungovernable rage; extreme folly.

A frantic or frenzied woman.

The philosophical system of Malebranche, an eminent French metaphysician. The fundamental doctrine of his system is that the mind can not have knowledge of anything external to itself except in its relation to God.

atus to the Bessemer process for decarbonizing cast iron. So called from Pierre Manhès, a French metallurgist, who invented it.

A French mastiff.

A high explosive similar to lyddite, consisting principally of picric acid, used in the French military service.

a morbid condition of the semicircular canals of the internal ear. Named after Ménière, a French physician.

The tenth month of the French republican calendar dating from September 22, 1792. It began June 19, and ended July 18. See VendÉmiaire.