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A standard of judging; any approved or established rule or test, by which facts, principles opinions, and conduct are tried in forming a correct judgment respecting them. Of the diseases of the mind there is no criterion. Donne. Inferences founded on such enduring criteria. Sir G. C. Lewis.

transversely an irregularly, so as to interfere with splitting or planing. If the stuff proves crossgrained, . . . then you must turn your stuff to plane it the contrary way. Moxon.

A number of small cords rove through a long block, or euphroe, to suspend an awning by.

orm the topmost or finishing part of; to complete; to consummate; to perfect. Amidst the grove that crowns yon tufted hill. Byron. One day shall crown the alliance. Shak. To crown the whole, came a proposition. Motley.

Intense suffering or affliction; painful trial. Do ye prove What crucifixions are in love Herrick.

To improve by labor, care, or study; to impart culture to; to civilize; to refine. To cultivate the wild, licentious savage. Addison. The mind of man hath need to be prepared for piety and virtue; it must be cultivated to the end. Tillotson.

The art or act of cultivating; improvement for agricultural purposes or by agricultural processes; tillage; production by tillage.

The state of being cultivated; result of cultivation; physical improvement; enlightenment and discipline acquired by mental and moral training; civilization; refinement in manners and taste. What the Greeks expressed by their humanitas, we less happily try to express by the more artificial word culture. J. C. Shairp. T…

Tending to prove the same point to which other evidence has been offered; -- said of evidence.

write these curses in a book. Num. v. 23. Curses, like chickens, come home to roost. Old Proverb.

of 76 years, or four Metonic cycles; -- so called from Calippus, who proposed it as an improvement on the Metonic cycle. -- Cycle of eclipses, a priod of about 6,586 days, the time of revolution of the moon's node; -- called Saros by the Chaldeans. -- Cycle of indiction, a period of 15 years, employed in Roman and ec…

d or scimiter, made chiefly at Damascus, having a variegated appearance of watering, and proverbial for excellence. -- Damascus iron, or Damascus twist, metal formed of thin bars or wires of iron and steel elaborately twisted and welded together; used for making gun barrels, etc., of high quality, in which the surface…

scourage. "To damp your tender hopes." Akenside. Usury dulls and damps all industries, improvements, and new inventions, wherein money would be stirring if it were not for this slug. Bacon. How many a day has been damped and darkened by an angry word! Sir J. Lubbock. The failure of his enterprise damped the spirit of t…

power; liable to a penalty to be inflicted by him. [Obs.] This sense is retained in the proverb, "Out of debt out of danger." Those rich man in whose debt and danger they be not. Robynson (More's Utopia). -- To do danger, to cause danger. [Obs.] Shak.

To bewilder or surprise with brilliancy or display of any kind. "Dazzled and drove back his enemies." Shak.

to have to do with; specifically, to trade with. "Dealing with witches." Shak. (b) To reprove solemnly; to expostulate with. The deacons of his church, who, to use their own phrase, "dealt with him" on the sin of rejecting the aid which Providence so manifestly held out. Hawthorne. Return . . . and I will deal well wi…

Liable to be debated; disputable; subject to controversy or contention; open to question or dispute; as, a debatable question. The Debatable Land or Ground, a tract of land between the Esk and the Sark, claimed by both England and Scotland; the Batable Ground.

ssion for the purpose of elucidating truth or influencing action; strife in argument; controversy; as, the debates in Parliament or in Congress. Heard, noted, answer'd, as in full debate. Pope.

Controversy; deliberation; debate. [R.] A serious question and debatement with myself. Milton.

One who debates; one given to argument; a disputant; a controvertist. Debate where leisure serves with dull debaters. Shak.