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Webster’s Dictionary (1828)



709 words match “PLOY”

HOTTENTOTISM n.
A term employed to describe one of the varieties of stammering. Tylor.
HOUSEMAID n.
A female servant employed to do housework, esp. to take care of the rooms. Housemaid's knee (Med.), a swelling over the knee, due to an enlargement of the bursa in the front of the kneepan; -- so called because frequently occurring in servant girls who work upon their knees.
HUSBAND v.
To direct and manage with frugality; to use or employ to good purpose and the best advantage; to spend, apply, or use, with economy. For my means, I'll husband them so well, They shall go far. Shak.
HYDRO-ELECTRIC a.
Pertaining to, employed in, or produced by, the evolution of electricity by means of a battery in which water or steam is used. Hydro-electric machine (Physics), an apparatus invented by Sir William Armstrong of England for generating electricity by the escape of high-pressure steam from a series of jets connected with…
HYDROFLUORIC a.
d as a solution in water. It attacks all silicates, as glass or porcelain, is the agent employed in etching glass, and is preserved only in vessels of platinum, lead, caoutchouc, or gutta-percha.
IDIOM n.
tructural form peculiar to any language; the genius or cast of a language. Idiom may be employed loosely and figuratively as a synonym of language or dialect, but in its proper sense it signifies the totality of the general rules of construction which characterize the syntax of a particular language and distinguish it…
IDLE a. 4 definitions
Not called into active service; not turned to appropriate use; unemployed; as, idle hours. The idle spear and shield were high uphing. Milton.
IMAGINATION n.
the parts of different ones together, so as to form new wholes of our creation. I shall employ the word imagination to express this power. Stewart.
IMITATIONAL a.
Pertaining to, or employed in, imitation; as, imitational propensities.
IMPARITY n.
lectual notion we are at once encountered by the imparity of the object and the faculty employed upon it. I. Taylor.
IMPERIUM n.
(Law) The right to command, which includes the right to employ the force of the state to enforce the laws. It is one of the principal attributes of the executive power.
IMPINGE v.
pervious parts of bodies. Sir I. Newton. But, in the present order of things, not to be employed without impinging on God's justice. Bp. Warburton.
IMPLY v.
e a mulicious act is proved, a mulicious intention is implied. Bp. Sherlock. When a man employs a laborer to work for him, . . . the act of hiring implies an obligation and a promise that he shall pay him a reasonable reward for his services. Blackstone.
IMPRACTICABLE a.
Not practicable; incapable of being performed, or accomplished by the means employed, or at command; impossible; as, an impracticable undertaking.
IMPRESS n.
d. Why such impress of shipwrights Shak. Impress gang, a party of men, with an officer, employed to impress seamen for ships of war; a press gang. -- Impress money, a sum of money paid, immediately upon their entering service, to men who have been impressed.
IMPROVE v.
To use or employ to good purpose; to make productive; to turn to profitable account; to utilize; as, to improve one's time; to improve his means. Shak. We shall especially honor God by improving diligently the talents which God hath committed to us. Barrow. A hint that I do not remember to have seen opened and improved…
IMPROVEMENT n.
ct of making profitable use or applicaton of anything, or the state of being profitably employed; a turning to good account; practical application, as of a doctrine, principle, or theory, stated in a discourse. "A good improvement of his reason." S. Clarke. I shall make some improvement of this doctrine. Tillotson.…
INCERTUM a.
Doubtful; not of definite form. Opus incertum (Anc. Arch.), a kind of masonry employed in building walls, in which the stones were not squared nor laid in courses; rubblework.
INDOLENCE n.
ndolence is thus a state in which we have no grief or pain; so that the word, as we now employ it, seems to affirm that indulgence in sloth and ease is that which would constitute for us the absence of all pain. Trench.
INDUCTIVE a.
induction, under Induction. -- Inductive sciences, those sciences which admit of, and employ, the inductive method, as astronomy, botany, chemistry, etc.
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