Search the Dictionary

The act of seizing, or the state of being seized; sudden and violent grasp or gripe; a taking into possession; as, the seizure of a thief, a property, a throne, etc.

Any fish of the family Serranidæ, which includes the striped bass, the black sea bass, and many other food fishes. -- a. (Zoöl.)

Any one of several species of small fishes of the family Atherinidæ, having a silvery stripe along each side of the body. The common species of the American coast (Menidia notata) is very abundant. Called also silverside, sand smelt, friar, tailor, and tinker. Brook silversides (Zoöl.), a small fresh-water North Americ…

A little smile. [R.] Those happy smilets That played on her ripe lip. Shak.

or overheated imagination; calmness; coolness; gravity; seriousness; as, the sobriety of riper years. Mirth makes them not mad, Nor sobriety sad. Denham.

An unfermentable sugar, isomeric with glucose, found in the ripe berries of the rowan tree, or sorb, and extracted as a sweet white crystalline substance; -- called also mountain-ash sugar.

A sugarlike substance, isomeric with mannite and dulcite, found with sorbin in the ripe berries of the sorb, and extracted as a sirup or a white crystalline substance. -- Sor*bit"ic, a.

Having an acid or sharp, biting taste, like vinegar, and the juices of most unripe fruits; acid; tart. All sour things, as vinegar, provoke appetite. Bacon.

its peculiar habit of springing lighty and suddenly into the air. It has a white dorsal stripe, expanding into a broad patch of white on the rump and tail. Called also springer. [Written also springboc, and springbock.]

Something soft and easily crushed; especially, an unripe pod of pease. Not yet old enough for a man, nor young enough for a boy; as a squash is before 't is a peascod. Shak.

g squid, Giant squid. (Zoöl.) See under Flying, and Giant. -- Squid hound (Zoöl.), the striped bass.

linder. Barking squirrel (Zoöl.), the prairie dog. -- Federation squirrel (Zoöl.), the striped gopher. See Gopher, 2. -- Flying squirrel (Zoöl.). See Flying squirrel, in the Vocabulary. -- Java squirrel (Zoöl.). See Jelerang. -- Squirrel corn (Bot.), a North American herb (Dicantra Canadensis) bearing little yellow…

To cause to seem inferior or soiled by comparison. She stains the ripest virgins of her age. Beau. & Fl. That did all other beasts in beauty stain. Spenser. Stained glass, glass colored or stained by certain metallic pigments fused into its substance, -- often used for making ornament windows.

, or acquaintance. Melons on beds of ice are taught to bear, And strangers to the sun yet ripen here. Granville. My child is yet a stranger in the world. Shak. I was no stranger to the original. Dryden.

A line or long mark of a different color from the ground; a stripe; a vein. What mean those colored streaks in heaven Milton.

Marked or variegated with stripes.

A crosspiece placed between the sides of a boat to keep them apart when hoisted up and griped. Dana.

only, or chiefly, stringed instruments. -- String beans. (a) A dish prepared from the unripe pods of several kinds of beans; -- so called because the strings are stripped off.

A scaly multiple fruit resulting from the ripening of an ament in certain plants, as the hop or pine; a cone. See Cone, n., 3.

hten; to improve; to purify. The sun . . . Which not alone the southern wit sublimes, But ripens spirits in cold, northern climes. Pope.