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The soft hair of the face when beginning to appear. And the first down begins to shade his face. Dryden.

e a depth for floating. "Greater hulks draw deep." Shak. To draw to a head. (a) (Med.) To begin to suppurate; to ripen, as a boil. (b) Fig.: To ripen, to approach the time for action; as, the plot draws to a head.

iving axle. See Illust. of Locomotive. -- Driving note (Mus.), a syncopated note; a tone begun on a weak part of a measure and held through the next accented part, thus anticipating the accent and driving it through. -- Driving spring, a spring fixed upon the box of the driving axle of a locomotive engine to support…

"Above her drooped a lamp." Tennyson. I saw him ten days before he died, and observed he began very much to droop and languish. Swift.

tied, and plunged into water, as a punishment. See Cucking stool. The practice of ducking began in the latter part of the 15th century, and prevailed until the early part of the 18th, and occasionally as late as the 19th century. Blackstone. Chambers.

Any mean situation or condition; a vile abode. He . . . lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill. 1. Sam. ii. 8. Dunghill fowl, a domestic fowl of common breed.

nights nine times nine Shall he dwindle, peak and pine. Shak. Religious societies, though begun with excellent intentions, are said to have dwindled into factious clubs. Swift.

that this jest do not one day turn to earnest. Sir P. Sidney. And given in earnest what I begged in jest. Shak. In earnest, serious; seriously; not in jest; earnestly.

l things; the pursuits, interests, and allurements of this life. Our weary souls by earth beguiled. Keble.

right hand of one who faces the north; the point directly opposite to the west. The east began kindle. E. Everett.

over the question of papal supremacy and the doctrine of the filioque, and a separation, begun in the latter part of the 9th century, became final in 1054. The Eastern Church consists of twelve (thirteen if the Bulgarian Church be included) mutually independent churches (including among these the Hellenic Church, or C…

Made of ebony, or resembling ebony; black; as, an ebony countenance. This ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling. Poe.

The elision of a final m, with the preceding vowel, before a word beginning with a vowel.

The border or part adjacent to the line of division; the beginning or early part; as, in the edge of evening. "On the edge of winter." Milton. Edge joint (Carp.), a joint formed by two edges making a corner. -- Edge mill, a crushing or grinding mill in which stones roll around on their edges, on a level circular bed;…

like a proboscis. -- Elephant's ear (Bot.), a name given to certain species of the genus Begonia, which have immense one-sided leaves. -- Elephant's foot (Bot.) (a) A South African plant (Testudinaria Elephantipes), which has a massive rootstock covered with a kind of bark cracked with deep fissures; -- called also t…

To beg. [Obs.] Cockeram.

n emergent danger. Burke. Emergent year (Chron.), the epoch or date from which any people begin to compute their time or dates; as, the emergent year of Christendom is that of the birth of Christ; the emergent year of the United States is that of the declaration of their independence. -- E*mer"gent*ly, adv. -- E*mer"…

That degree of softness in a body beginning to melt which alters its shape; the first or lowest degree of fusibility.

ne, pole, road; the end of a year, of a discourse; put an end to pain; -- opposed to Ant: beginning, when used of anything having a first part. Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof. Eccl. vii. 8.

impair the moral powers of. A man . . . enervated by licentiousness. Macaulay. And rhyme began t' enervate poetry. Dryden.