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A Linnæan genus of Quadrumana which included the types of numerous modern genera. By modern writers it is usually restricted to the genus which includes the orang-outang.

kind popular in Germany in the latter part of the 18th century. It was often comic, had modern characters, and patterned its music on folk song with strictly subordinated accompaniment.

One of the triad of Hindoo gods. He is the avenger or destroyer, and in modern worship symbolizes the reproductive power of nature.

any fact or truth can be certainly known; a universal doubter; a Pyrrhonist; hence, in modern usage, occasionally, a person who questions whether any truth or fact can be established on philosophical grounds; sometimes, a critical inquirer, in opposition to a dogmatist. All this criticism [of Hume] proceeds upon the e…

Formerly, defamation generally, whether oral or written; in modern usage, defamation by words spoken; utterance of false, malicious, and defamatory words, tending to the damage and derogation of another; calumny. See the Note under Defamation. Burril.

The quality or state of being slight; slenderness; feebleness; superficiality; also, formerly, negligence; indifference; disregard.

Expressing gentleness, tenderness, or the like; mild; conciliatory; courteous; kind; as, soft eyes. A soft answer turneth away wrath. Prov. xv. 1. A face with gladness overspread, Soft smiles, by human kindness bred. Wordsworth.

Having softness or tenderness of heart; susceptible of pity or other kindly affection; gentle; meek. -- Soft"-heart`ed*ness, n.

ely exposed to the sun; anciently, an apartment or inclosure on the roof of a house; in modern times, an apartment in a hospital, used as a resort for convalescents.

solitary or lonely place; a desert or wilderness. In these deep solitudes and awful cells Where heavenly pensive contemplation dwells. Pope.

The quality or state of being sore; tenderness; painfull; as, the soreness of a wound; the soreness of an affliction.

One of the armored projections fitted with gun ports, used on modern war vessels.

cured to the heel, or above the heel, of a horseman, to urge the horse by its pressure. Modern spurs have a small wheel, or rowel, with short points. Spurs were the badge of knighthood. And on her feet a pair of spurs large. Chaucer.

; to become dull or inactive; as, commerce stagnates; business stagnates. Ready-witted tenderness . . . never stagnates in vain lamentations while there is any room for hope. Sir W. Scott.

. crept under the shoulder of his led horse; . . . "I must stalk," said he. Bacon. One underneath his horse, to get a shoot doth stalk. Drayton.

; quietness; silence; calmness; inactivity. Painting, then, was the art demanded by the modern intellect upon its emergence from the stillness of the Middle Ages. J. A. Symonds.

e direction; especially, to pass the hand gently over by way of expressing kindness or tenderness; to caress; to soothe. He dried the falling drops, and, yet more kind, He stroked her cheeks. Dryden.

r part of the choral ode, sung during this movement. Also sometimes used of a stanza of modern verse. See the Note under Antistrophe.

To regard as a fool, or as foolish. [R.] The modern sciolist stultifies all understanding but his own, and that which he conceives like his own. Hazlitt.

To reduce to tenderness; to melt; to soften; as, to subdue ferocity by tears.