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tency, -- opposed to fluidity; compactness; fullness of matter, -- opposed to openness or hollowness; strength; soundness, -- opposed to weakness or instability; the primary quality or affection of matter by which its particles exclude or resist all others; hardness; massiveness. That which hinders the approach of two…

The sound produced by soughing; a hollow murmur or roaring. The whispering leaves or solemn sough of the forest. W. Howitt.

To shape, as malleable sheet metal, into a hollow form, by bending or buckling it by pressing against it with a smooth hand tool or roller while the metal revolves, as in a lathe. To spin a yarn (Naut.), to tell a story, esp. a long or fabulous tale. -- To spin hay (Mil.), to twist it into ropes for convenient carriag…

A piece of cane or red with a knot at each end, or a hollow cylinder of wood with a ridge at each end, used to wind thread or yarn upon. Spool stand, an article holding spools of thread, turning on pins, -- used by women at their work.

haped like the bowl of a spoon with a fishhook attached. -- Spoon bit, a bit for boring, hollowed or furrowed along one side. -- Spoon net, a net for landing fish. -- Spoon oar. see under Oar.

, usually worked or embroidered. [Obs.] Shak. Geometrical square. See Quadrat, n., 2. -- Hollow square (Mil.), a formation of troops in the shape of a square, each side consisting of four or five ranks, and the colors, officers, horses, etc., occupying the middle. -- Least square, Magic square, etc. See under Least,…

A little pipe, or hollow cylinder of paper, filled with powder or combustible matter, to be thrown into the air while burning, so as to burst there with a crack. Lampoons, like squibs, may make a present blaze. Waller. The making and selling of fireworks, and squibs . . . is punishable. Blackstone.

To become steep or steeper. As the way steepened . . . I could detect in the hollow of the hill some traces of the old path. H. Miller.

A narrowing of the opening or hollow of any passage, tube, or orifice; as, stenosis of the pylorus. It differs from stricture in being applied especially to diffused rather than localized contractions, and in always indicating an origin organic and not spasmodic.

A sharp-pointed hollow hair seated on a gland which secrets an acrid fluid, as in nettles. The points of these hairs usually break off in the wound, and the acrid fluid is pressed into it.

Having the back hollow or sagged, whether naturally or as the result of injury or weakness; -- said of horses and other animals.

Bent down, and hollow in the back; sway-backed; -- said of a horse. Shak.

A collective fleshy fruit, in which the ovaries are hidden within a hollow receptacle, as in the fig.

Cautery by the application of heat. Paquelin's thermocautery, thermocautery by means of a hollow platinum point, which is kept constantly hot by the passage through it of benzine vapor.

Wanting in body or volume; small; feeble; not full. Thin, hollow sounds, and lamentable screams. Dryden.

To call, summon, or notify, by tolling or ringing. When hollow murmurs of their evening bells Dismiss the sleepy swains, and toll them to their cells. Dryden.

To draw along; to trail; to drag. In hollow cube Training his devilish enginery. Milton.

Disposal of the dead by placing the corpse among the branches of a tree or in a hollow trunk, a practice among many primitive peoples.

A long, hollow vessel, generally for holding water or other liquid, especially one formed by excavating a log longitudinally on one side; a long tray; also, a wooden channel for conveying water, as to a mill wheel.

umpet (Bot.), a great seaweed (Ecklonia buccinalis) of the Southern Ocean. It has a long, hollow stem, enlarging upwards, which may be made into a kind of trumpet, and is used for many purposes. -- Speaking trumpet, an instrument for conveying articulate sounds with increased force. -- Trumpet animalcule (Zoöl.), any…