Search the Dictionary

A marriage with a person of inferior rank or social station; an improper alliance; a mesalliance. A Leigh had made a misalliance, and blushed A Howard should know it. Mrs. Browning.

An erroneous inference or conclusion. Bp. Hall.

bird. Mocker nut (Bot.), a kind of hickory (Carya tomentosa) and its fruit, which is far inferior to the true shagbark hickory nut.

marriage, called also left-handed marriage, between a man of superior rank and a woman of inferior, in which it is stipulated that neither the latter nor her children shall enjoy the rank or inherit the possessions of her husband. Brande & C. -- Mor`ga*nat"ic*al*ly, adv.

A fine kind of leather, prepared commonly from goatskin (though an inferior kind is made of sheepskin), and tanned with sumac and dyed of various colors; -- said to have been first made by the Moors.

An inferior olive size having a woody pulp and a large clingstone pit, growing in the mountainous and high-valley districts around the city of Moron, in Spain.

An inferior kind of madder prepared from the smaller roots or the peelings and refuse of the larger.

ons between objects of choice, of discovering the whereabouts of hidden objects, etc., by inference from the involuntary movements of one whose hand the reader holds or with whom he is otherwise in muscular contact.

That point of the heavens, or lower hemisphere, directly opposite the zenith; the inferior pole of the horizon; the point of the celestial sphere directly under the place where we stand.

ativity. Ruth ii. 11. These in their dark nativity the deep Shall yield us, pregnant with infernal flame. Milton.

exclusion, or exception; statement of what a thing is not, or has not, from which may be inferred what it is or has.

An inferior commercial variety of India rubber made up into round masses.

An inference which does not follow from the premises.

ances; things being as they are; -- hence, used as a connective particle, to introduce an inference or an explanation. How shall any man distinguish now betwixt a parasite and a man of honor L'Estrange. Why should he live, now nature bankrupt is Shak. Then cried they all again, saying, Not this man, but Barabbas. Now,…

The act of immediate inference, by which we deny the opposite of anything which has been affirmed; as, all men are mortal; then, by obversion, no men are immortal. This is also described as "immediate inference by privative conception." Bain.

Possessing inferior hardness, brilliancy, or beauty; -- used of inferior precious stones and gems, because those found in the Orient are generally superior.

Second-rate; inferior; small. [Slang, U.S.]

A mineral consisting, like quartz, of silica, but inferior to quartz in hardness and specific gravity.

The inferior and posterior of the three elements forming the periotic bone.

ished by superior excellence or beauty; hence, not distinguished in any way; commonplace; inferior; of little merit; as, men of ordinary judgment; an ordinary book. An ordinary lad would have acquired little or no useful knowledge in such a way. Macaulay. Ordinary seaman (Naut.), one not expert or fully skilled, and he…