Search the Dictionary

rary agency or influence; as, to counteract the effect of medicines; to counteract good advice.

Any force or device designed to restrain another restraining force; a check upon a check. The system of checks and counterchecks. J. H. Newton.

To prohibit; to forbid. [Obs.] Avicen countermands letting blood in choleric bodles. Harvey.

A sudden stroke; an unexpected device or stratagem; -- a term used in various ways to convey the idea of promptness and force. Coup de grace (ke gr Etym: [F.], the stroke of mercy with which an executioner ends by death the sufferings of the condemned; hence, a decisive, finishing stroke. -- Coup de main (ke m Etym: […

A device or contrivance which serves to couple or connect adjacent parts or objects; as, a belt coupling, which connects the ends of a belt; a car coupling, which connects the cars in a train; a shaft coupling, which connects the ends of shafts. Box coupling, Chain coupling. See under Box, Chain. -- Coupling box, a co…

ction of a ticket, showing the holder to be entitled to some specified accomodation or service, as to a passage over a designated line of travel, a particular seat in a theater, or the like.

f parts, with or without a perceptible opening; a chink or fissure; a narrow breach; a crevice; as, a crack in timber, or in a wall, or in glass.

es; artifice; guile; skill or dexterity employed to effect purposes by deceit or shrewd devices. You have that crooked wisdom which is called craft. Hobbes. The chief priets and the scribes sought how they might take him by craft, and put him to death. Mark xiv. 1.

A device, usually of iron bent at the ends, used to hold together blocks of stone, timbers, etc.; a cramp iron.

A small, narrow opening, fissure, crevice, or chink, as in a wall, or other substance. In a firm building, the cavities ought not to be filled with rubbish, but with brick or stone fitted to the crannies. Dryden. He peeped into every cranny. Arbuthnot.

A spurlike device strapped to the boot, which enables one to climb a tree or pole; -- called often telegraph creepers.

in 1801, to be conferred upon foreigners to whom Turkey might be indebted for valuable services. Brande & C.

A deep crevice or fissure, as in embankment; one of the clefts or fissure by which the mass of a glacier is divided.

nduct; as, criminal carelessness. Foppish and fantastic ornaments are only indications of vice, not criminal in themselves. Addison.

Hence, to entrap into the military or naval service; as, to crimp seamen. Coaxing and courting with intent to crimp him. Carlyle.

frame over which the upper of a boot or shoe is stretched to the required shape. (b) A device for giving hair a wavy apperance. (c) A machine for crimping or ruffling textile fabrics.

To deprive of strength, activity, or capability for service or use; to disable; to deprive of resources; as, to be financially crippled. More serious embarrassments . . . were crippling the energy of the settlement in the Bay. Palfrey. An incumbrance which would permanently cripple the body politic. Macaulay.…

An artifice; trick; tricky device; subterfuge. For all yuor brags, hooks, and crooks. Cranmer.

An appendage or ornament or anything in the form of a cross; a badge or ornamental device of the general shape of a cross; hence, such an ornament, even when varying considerably from that form; thus, the Cross of the British Order of St. George and St. Michael consist of a central medallion with seven arms radiating f…

A vessel used to hold wine, oil, or water for the service of the altar. Cruet stand, a frame for holding cruets; a caster.