Search the Dictionary

a conceit consisting in a change of the form or meaning of a word. Quips, and cranks, and wanton wiles. Milton.

blessing or preserving from evil, is very old. Schaff-Herzog Encyc. Before the cross has waned the crescent's ray. Sir W. Scott. Tis where the cross is preached. Cowper.

To wander hither and thither on land. [Colloq.]

To break into small pieces; to cause to fall in pieces. He with his bare wand can unthread thy joints, And crumble all thy sinews. Milton.

keep in check. Part wield their arms, part curb the foaming steed. Milton. Where pinching want must curbthy warm desires. Prior.

To twist or make onto coils, as a serpent's body. Of his tortuous train, Curled many a wanton wreath in sight of Eve. Milton.

A young swan. Shak.

A constellation of the northern hemisphere east of, or following, Lyra; the Swan.

The act of dallying, trifling, or fondling; interchange of caresses; wanton play. Look thou be true, do not give dalliance Too mnch the rein. Shak. O, the dalliance and the wit, The flattery and the strifeTennyson.

To interchange caresses, especially with one of the opposite sex; to use fondling; to wanton; to sport. Not dallying with a brace of courtesans. Shak. Our aerie . . . dallies with the wind. Shak.

the feet and drinketh damage. Prov. xxvi. 6. Great errors and absurdities many commit for want of a friend to tell them of them, to the great damage both of their fame and fortune. Bacon.

To wander about; to saunter; to talk incoherently. [Prov. Eng.] Halliwell.

lectual darkness; unrefined; ignorant. The age wherin he lived was dark, but he Cobld not want light who taught the world oto see. Denhan. The tenth century used to be reckoned by mediæval historians as the darkest part of this intellectual night. Hallam.

Want of clearness or perspicuity; obscurity; as, the darkness of a subject, or of a discussion.

revent ill-natured applications. Addison. The very source and fount of day Is dashed with wandering isles of night. Tennyson.

Wanting in religious spirit and vitality; as, dead faith; dead works. "Dead in trespasses." Eph. ii. 1.

Wanting the sense of hearing, either wholly or in part; unable to perceive sounds; hard of hearing; as, a deaf man. Come on my right hand, for this ear is deaf. Shak.

g sounds; the state of the organs which prevents the impression which constitute hearing; want of the sense of hearing.

Going about from place to place; wandering; of or pertaining to a deambulatory. [Obs.] "Deambulatory actors." Bp. Morton.

Scarcity which renders dear; want; lack; specifically, lack of food on account of failure of crops; famine. There came a dearth over all the land of Egypt. Acts vii. 11. He with her press'd, she faint with dearth. Shak. Dearth of plot, and narrowness of imagination. Dryden.