Search the Dictionary

or altering a writing or signature purporting to be made by another; the false making or material alteration of or addition to a written instrument for the purpose of deceit and fraud; as, the forgery of a bond. Bouvier.

The shape and structure of anything, as distinguished from the material of which it is composed; particular disposition or arrangement of matter, giving it individuality or distinctive character; configuration; figure; external appearance. The form of his visage was changed. Dan. iii. 19. And woven close close, both ma…

the forms, so called of the human intellect. Of [the sounds represented by] letters, the material part is breath and voice; the formal is constituted by the motion and figure of the organs of speech. Holder.

The quality which makes a thing what it is; essence. The material part of the evil came from our father upon us, but the formality of it, the sting and the curse, is only by ourselves. Jer. Taylor. The formality of the vow lies in the promise made to God. Bp. Stillingfleet.

and development; organized; as, the formed or organized ferments. See Ferment, n. Formed material (Biol.), a term employed by Beale to denote the lifeless matter of a cell, that which is physiologically dead, in distinction from the truly germinal or living matter.

A thin, washable material of silk, or silk and cotton, originally imported from India, but now also made elsewhere.

To take the ffirst steps or measures in erecting or building up; to furnish the materials for beginning; to begin to raise; to originate; as, to found a college; to found a family. There they shall found Their government, and their great senate choose. Milton.

Consisting of the pulverized or fragmentary material of rock, as conglomerate, shale, etc.

To relieve, as a rope, by change of place where friction wears it; or to renew, as the material used to prevent chafing; as, to freshen a hawse. Totten. To freshen ballast (Naut.), to shift Or restore it. -- To freshen the hawse, to pay out a little more cable, so as to bring the chafe on another part. -- To freshen…

A short piece of wire, or other material fixed across the finger board of a guitar or a similar instrument, to indicate where the finger is to be placed.

The material of which glass is made, after having been calcined or partly fused in a furnace, but before vitrification. It is a composition of silex and alkali, occasionally with other ingredients. Ure.

on of resources; not wasteful or lavish; wise in the expenditure or application of force, materials, time, etc.; characterized by frugality; sparing; economical; saving; as, a frugal housekeeper; frugal of time. I oft admire How Nature, wise and frugal, could commit Such disproportions. Milton.

to disappear or fall away; volatile; uncertain; evanescent; liable to fade; -- applied to material and immaterial things; as, fugitive colors; a fugitive idea. The me more tender and fugitive parts, the leaves . . . of vegatables. Woodward. Fugitive compositions, Such as are short and occasional, and so published that…

To become fulled or thickened; as, this material fulls well.

m troughs where the cloth is placed with hot water and fuller's earth, or other cleansing materials.

as, funeral rites, honors, or ceremonies. Shak. Funeral pile, a structure of combustible material, upon which a dead body is placed to be reduced to ashes, as part of a funeral rite; a pyre. -- Fu"ner*al*ly, adv. [Obs.] Sir T. Browne.

A small packet of explosive material with wire appendages allowing it to be conveniently attached to a railroad track. It will explode with a loud report when run over by a train, and is used to provide a warning signal to the engineer.

A similar bordering or binding of rich material, such as gold lace. Silver and gold galloons, with the like glittering gewgaws. Addison.

A strip of material, as leather, running around a shoe at and above the sole, as for protection or ornament.

A refractory material consisting of crushed or ground siliceous stone, mixed with fire clay; -- used for lining Bessemer converters; also used for macadamizing roads.