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A loop or sleeve with a screw thread at one end and a swivel at the other, -- used for tightening a rod, stay, etc.

A little tower, frequently a merely ornamental structure at one of the angles of a larger structure.

One of the stages in the life history of certain rusts (Uredinales), regarded at one time as a distinct genus. It is a summer stage preceding the teleutospore, or winter stage. See Uredinales, in the Supplement.

tween different countries, when a bill of exchange is payable; as, a bill drawn on London at one usance, or at double usance.

ected, especially the parts between the trade-wind belts. Independent variable (Math.), that one of two or more variables, connected with each other in any way whatever, to which changes are supposed to be given at will. Thus, in the equation x2 - y2 = R2, if arbitrary changes are supposed to be given to x, then x is t…

A vain display of what one is, or has, or has done; ostentation from vanity; a boast; a brag. The spirits beneath, whom I seduced With other promises and other vaunts. Milton.

Capable of turning; freely movable; as, a versatile anther, which is fixed at one point to the filament, and hence is very easily turned around; a versatile toe of a bird. -- Ver"sa*tile*ly, adv. -- -- Ver"sa*tile*ness, n.

The clothes washed, esp. at one time; a wash. Washing bear (Zoöl.), the raccoon. -- Washing bottle (Chem.), a bottle fitted with glass tubes passing through the cork, so that on blowing into one of the tubes a stream of water issuing from the other may be directed upon anything to be washed or rinsed, as a precipitate…

A piece of metal, or other hard material, thick at one end, and tapering to a thin edge at the other, used in splitting wood, rocks, etc., in raising heavy bodies, and the like. It is one of the six elementary machines called the mechanical powers. See Illust. of Mechanical powers, under Mechanical.…

, or implement, of the Australian aborigines, consisting of a cigar-shaped stick fastened at one end to a flexible twig. It weighs in all about two ounces, and is about two feet long.

where the sun is seen to set at the equinox; or, the corresponding point on the earth; that one of the four cardinal points of the compass which is in a direction at right angles to that of north and south, and on the left hand of a person facing north; the point directly opposite to east. And fresh from the west is t…

That one of the two similar thermometers of a psychrometer the bulb of which is moistened; also, the entire instrument.

Whether one or another; whether one or the other; which; that one (of two or more) which; as, whichever road you take, it will lead you to town.

To have complete control over; to turn and bend at one's pleasure; to vary or alter or will; to regulate; to govern. "To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus." Shak. In his terms so he would him wind. Chaucer. Gifts blind the wise, and bribes do please And wind all other witnesses. Herrick. Were our legislature vested in the…

One in a flight of steps which are curved in plan, so that each tread is broader at one end than at the other; -- distinguished from flyer.

used in this sense chiefly in the plural, and in certain phrases; as, to lose one's wits; at one's wits' end, and the like. "Men's wittes ben so dull." Chaucer. I will stare him out of his wits. Shak.

nity of persons, some one or all of the divine attributes personified. John i. 1. -- To eat one's words, to retract what has been said. -- To have the words for, to speak for; to act as spokesman. [Obs.] "Our host hadde the wordes for us all." Chaucer. -- Word blindness (Physiol.), inability to understand printed or…

orldly ends." Shak. Many years it hath continued, standing by no other worldly mean but that one only hand which erected it. Hooker.