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Want or loss of strength; debility; diminution of the vital forces.

With one leg on each side, as a man when on horseback; with the legs stretched wide apart; astraddle. Placed astride upon the bars of the palisade. Sir W. Scott. Glasses with horn bows sat astride on his nose. Longfellow.

Any one trained to contend in exercises requiring great physical agility and strength; one who has great activity and strength; a champion.

To call to witness; to invoke. [Archaic] The sacred streams which Heaven's imperial state Attests in oaths, and fears to violate. Dryden.

egree; to swell; to make bigger; as, to augment an army by reëforcements; rain augments a stream; impatience augments an evil. But their spite still serves His glory to augment. Milton.

Gold-bearing; containing or producing gold. Whence many a bursting stream auriferous plays. Thomson. ~= pyrites, iron pyrites (iron disulphide), containing some gold disseminated through it.

night, and supposed to be of electrical origin. This species of light usually appears in streams, ascending toward the zenith from a dusky line or bank, a few degrees above the northern horizon; when reaching south beyond the zenith, it forms what is called the corona, about a spot in the heavens toward which the dipp…

Favoring; favorable; propitious; -- applied to persons or things. "Thy auspicious mistress." Shak. "Auspicious gales." Pope.

A system of natural drainage developed by the constituent streams through headwater erosion.

A system of land forms produced by the free action of rain and streams on rocks of uniform texture.

An automobile vehicle or mechanism; esp., a self-propelled vehicle suitable for use on a street or roadway. Automobiles are usually propelled by internal combustion engines (using volatile inflammable liquids, as gasoline or petrol, alcohol, naphtha, etc.), steam engines, or electric motors. The power of the driving mo…

To be of use or advantage; to answer the purpose; to have strength, force, or efficacy sufficient to accomplish the object; as, the plea in bar must avail, that is, be sufficient to defeat the suit; this scheme will not avail; medicines will not avail to check the disease. "What signs avail " Milton. Words avail very l…

A broad street; as, the Fifth Avenue in New York.

The defendant in replevin, who avows the distress of the goods, and justifies the taking. Cowell.

constant or confused murmur. The babble of our young children. Darwin. The babble of the stream. Tennyson.

or languages. That babel of strange heathen languages. Hammond. The grinding babel of the street. R. L. Stevenson.

(Mil.), the retrograde movement of a man or body of men, without changing front. -- Back stream, a current running against the main current of a stream; an eddy. -- To take the back track, to retrace one's steps; to retreat. [Colloq.]

That which is behind, and forms the back of, anything, usually giving strength or stability.

ul enemies." Shak. Four infernal rivers that disgorge Into the burning lake their baleful streams. Milton.

A narrow strip of cloth or other material on any article of dress, to bind, strengthen, ornament, or complete it. "Band and gusset and seam." Hood.