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ns], existed . . . But by the customs of France and Germany, persons in this abject state seem to have been called serfs, and distinguished from villeins, who were only bound to fixed payments and duties in respect of their lord, though, as it seems, without any legal redress if injured by him. Hallam.…

Crowded; compact; dense; pressed together. Nor seemed it to relax their serried files. Milton.

esults from such sexual preferences. Darwin. In these cases, therefore, natural selection seems to have acted independently of sexual selection. A. R. Wallace.

Hence, that which checks or prevents free action. His very will seems to be in bonds and shackles. South.

To shine; to glisten. [Poetic] This town, That, sheening far, celestial seems to be. Byron.

Being only what it seems to be; obvious; simple; mere; downright; as, sheer folly; sheer nonsense. "A sheer impossibility." De Quincey. It is not a sheer advantage to have several strings to one's bow. M. Arnold.

; a glimmer. TWo silver lamps, fed with perfumed oil, diffused . . . a trembling twilight-seeming shimmer through the quiet apartment. Sir W. Scott.

To grow; to advance; as, to shoot up rapidly. Well shot in years he seemed. Spenser. Delightful task! to rear the tender thought, To teach the young idea how to shoot. Thomson.

To exhibit or manifest one's self or itself; to appear; to look; to be in appearance; to seem. Just such she shows before a rising storm. Dryden. All round a hedge upshoots, and shows At distance like a little wood. Tennyson.

hrow; a throw; a fling. Thackeray. If Lord Brougham gets a stone in his hand, he must, it seems, have a shy at somebody. Punch.

ee Single-foot. Many very fleet horses, when overdriven, adopt a disagreeable gait, which seems to be a cross between a pace and a trot, in which the two legs of one side are raised almost but not quite, simultaneously. Such horses are said to single, or to be single-footed. W. S. Clark.

r. Whether we speak evil of a man to his face or behind his back; the former way, indeed, seems to be the most generous, but yet is a great fault, and that which we call "reviling;" the latter is more mean and base, and that which we properly call "slander", or "Backbiting." Tillotson. [We] make the careful magistrate…

sale of slaves; a slave merchant, or slave trader. The slaver's hand was on the latch, He seemed in haste to go. Longfellow.

o make or convey a certain impression, or to have a certain import, when heard; hence, to seem; to appear; as, this reproof sounds harsh; the story sounds like an invention. Good sir, why do you start, and seem to fear Things that do sound so fair Shak. To sound in or into, to tend to; to partake of the nature of; to b…

Seeming to be capable of speech; hence, lifelike; as, a speaking likeness. A speaking acquaintance, a slight acquaintance with a person, or one which merely permits the exchange of salutations and remarks on indifferent subjects. -- Speaking trumpet, an instrument somewhat resembling a trumpet, by which the sound of t…

Splenetic. Shak. Even and smooth as seemed the temperament of the nonchalant, languid Virginian -- not splenitive or rash. T. N. Page.

The impost, or point at which an arch rests upon its support, and from which it seems to spring. Hence:

To contend for superiority in an unseemly maner; to scuffle; to struggle; to wrangle; to quarrel.

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.

ift. Wit itself, if stale is less pleasing. Grew. How weary, stale flat, and unprofitable Seem to me all the uses of this world! Shak. Stale affidavit (Law), an affidavit held above a year. Craig. -- Stale demand (Law), a claim or demand which has not been pressed or demanded for a long time.