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Destitute of understanding or prudence; foolish; rash; obstinate. [Obs.] Witless headiness in judging or headless hardiness in condemning. Spenser.

Understanding; mental faculty. Eumenes had the best headpiece of all Alexander's captains. Prideaux.

separately, as love, hate, joy, grief, courage, and the like; rarely, the seat of the understanding or will; -- usually in a good sense, when no epithet is expressed; the better or lovelier part of our nature; the spring of all our actions and purposes; the seat of moral life and character; the moral affections and ch…

Management by the heel, especially the spurred heel; as, the horse understands the heel well.

extreme limit. -- Helm port, the round hole in a vessel's counter through which the rudderstock passes. -- Helm down, helm alee. -- Helm up, helm aweather. -- To ease the helm, to let the tiller come more amidships, so as to lessen the strain on the rudder. -- To feel the helm, to obey it. -- To right the helm,…

uperior; -- used indefinitely or relatively, and often in figurative senses, which are understood from the connection; as -

. [Obs.] How could thou ween, through that disguised hood To hide thy state from being understood Spenser.

An aëroplane with a boatlike or other understructure that enables it to travel on, or to rise from the surface of, a body of water by its own motive power.

purpose, use, effect, etc. [Obs. or R.] An enlightened self-interest, which, when well understood, they tell us will identify with an interest more enlarged and public. Burke.

l powers, whether congenital, developmental, or accidental; commonly, a person without understanding from birth; a natural fool; a natural; an innocent. Life . . . is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. Shak.

Foolish; stupid. [Obs.] "The superstitious idle-headed eld." Shak.

ig.: A misleading influence; a decoy. Scared and guided by the ignis fatuus of popular superstition. Jer. Taylor.

A complicated and embarrassing state of things; a serious misunderstanding. Wrestling to free itself from the baleful imbroglio. Carlyle.

id the vexation and impertinence of pedants who affect to talk in a language not to be understood. Swift.

at which is implied, but not expressed; an inference, or something which may fairly be understood, though not expressed in words. Whatever things, therefore, it was asserted that the king might do, it was a necessary implication that there were other things which he could not do. Hallam.

Tacitly comprised; fairly to be understood, though not expressed in words; implied; as, an implicit contract or agreement. South.

ble; incapable of being communicated, shared, told, or imparted, to others. Health and understanding are incommunicable. Southey. Those incommunicable relations of the divine love. South. -- In`com*mu"ni*ca*ble*ness, n. -- In`com*mu"ni*ca*bly, adv.

Not capable of being comprehended or understood; beyond the reach of the human intellect; inconceivable. And all her numbered stars that seem to roll Spaces incomprehensible. Milton. -- In*com`pre*hen"si*ble*ness, n. -- In*com`pre*hen"si*bly, adv.

Want of comprehension or understanding. "These mazes and incomprehensions." Bacon.

Not comprehensive; not capable of including or of understanding; not extensive; limited. -- In*com`pre*hen"sive*ly, a. Sir W. Hamilton. -- In*com`pre*hen"sive*ness, n. T. Warton.