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A word or phrase; a motto; a proverb; a wise saw. [Obs.] "This rede is rife." Spenser.

The burden of a song; a phrase or verse which recurs at the end of each of the separate stanzas or divisions of a poetic composition. We hear the wild refrain. Whittier.

To plunder; -- only in the phrase "to rape and renne." See under Rap, v. t., to snatch. [Obs.] Chaucer.

e an account of; to relate; to tell; to circulate publicly, as a story; as, in the common phrase, it is reported. Shak. It is reported among the heathen, and Gashmu saith it, that thou and the Jews think to rebel. Neh. vi. 6.

t (Law), a trust raised by implication for the benefit of a party granting an estate. The phrase is also applied to a trust raised by implication for the benefit of a party who advances the purchase money of an estate, etc. Bouvier. -- Resulting use (Law), a use which, being limited by the deed, expires or can not ves…

poetically to a father. Shak. Save your reverence, Saving your reverence, an apologetical phrase for an unseemly expression made in the presence of a priest or clergyman. -- Sir reverence, a contracted form of Save your reverence. Such a one as a man may not speak of, without he say. "Sir reverence." Shak. -- To do re…

An obsolete phrase of disputed meaning, -- perhaps, smooth or polished bone. His saddle was of rewel boon. Chaucer.

The fourth part of an acre, or forty square rods. By the rood, by the cross; -- a phrase formerly used in swearing. "No, by the road, not so." Shak. -- Rood beam (Arch.), a beam across the chancel of a church, supporting the road. -- Rood loft (Arch.), a loft or gallery, in a church, on which the rood and its appenda…

A form of melody in which a phrase or passage is successively repeated, each time a step or half step higher; a melodic sequence.

a town; devastation; ravage. The town was stormed, and delivered up to sack, -- by which phrase is to be understood the perpetration of all those outrages which the ruthless code of war allowed, in that age, on the persons and property of the defenseless inhabitants, without regard to sex or age. Prescott.…

Heavy; weighty; ponderous; close; hard. [Obs., except in a few phrases; as, sad bread.] His hand, more sad than lump of lead. Spenser. Chalky lands are naturally cold and sad. Mortimer.

e; motive; reason; interest; concern; account; regard or respect; -- used chiefly in such phrases as, for the sake, for his sake, for man's sake, for mercy's sake, and the like; as, to commit crime for the sake of gain; to go abroad for the sake of one's health. Moved with wrath and shame and ladies; sake. Spenser. I w…

Marches flooded by the tide. [Prov. Eng.] Above the salt, Below the salt, phrases which have survived the old custom, in the houses of people of rank, of placing a large saltcellar near the middle of a long table, the places above which were assigned to the guests of distinction, and those below to dependents, inferior…

s according to rank, that of the chief being "General." They wear a uniform, and in their phraseology and mode of work adopt a quasi military style.

y, a parish assessment laid on subjects according to their ability. [Eng.] Cowell. Now, a phrase for obligations of every kind regarded collectivelly. Experienced men of the world know very well that it is best to pay scot and lot as they go along. Emerson.

The peculiar language or phraseology of seamen; sailor's cant.

A term used specifically by seamen; a nautical word or phrase.

A part of a musical period, composed of one or more phrases. See Phrase.

Meaning; import; signification; as, the true sense of words or phrases; the sense of a remark. So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense. Neh. viii. 8. I think 't was in another sense. Shak.

A method of teaching reading by giving first attention to phrases and sentences and later analyzing these into their verbal and alphabetic components; -- contrasted with alphabet and word methods.