Search the Dictionary

applied to a cannon or mortar in adjusting it to the elevation required for attaining the desired range. -- Gunter's quadrant. See Gunter's quadrant, in the Vocabulary. Hadley's quadrant, a hand instrument used chiefly at sea to measure the altitude of the sun or other celestial body in ascertaining the vessel's posit…

Earnest desire or longing. [Obs.] Holland. To pick a quarrel. See under Pick, v. t.

Request; desire; solicitation. Gad not abroad at every quest and call Of an untrained hope or passion. Herbert.

To doubt of; to be uncertain of; to query. And most we question what we most desire. Prior.

Violent excitement; eager passion; extreme vehemence of desire, emotion, or suffering, mastering the will. "In great rage of pain." Bacon. He appeased the rage of hunger with some scraps of broken meat. Macaulay. Convulsed with a rage of grief. Hawthorne.

by force; spoliation; pillage; plunder. Men who were impelled to war quite as much by the desire of rapine as by the desire of glory. Macaulay.

Eager for prey or gratification; as, a ravenous appetite or desire. -- Rav"en*ous*ly, adv. -- Rav"en*ous*ness, n.

stretch out as far as; to touch by virtue of extent; as, his hand reaches the river. Thy desire . . . leads to no excess That reaches blame. Milton.

cognitive faculties, sense, imagination, and memory, and in contrast to the feelings and desires. Reason comprises conception, judgment, reasoning, and the intuitional faculty. Specifically, it is the intuitional faculty, or the faculty of first truths, as distinguished from the understanding, which is called the disc…

. Chaucer. I reck not though I end my life to-day. Shak. Of me she recks not, nor my vain desire. M. Arnold.

Hence: To reduce to a desired state by discipline, labor, cultivation, or the like; to rescue from being wild, desert, waste, submerged, or the like; as, to reclaim wild land, overflowed land, etc.

ther receiver, which is fed from a boiler or pipe in which the pressure is higher than is desired in the receiver.

To adjust, or maintain, with respect to a desired rate, degree, or condition; as, to regulate the temperature of a room, the pressure of steam, the speed of a machine, etc. To regulate a watch or clock, to adjust its rate of running so that it will keep approximately standard time.

liberty; to let go. Now at that feast he released unto them one prisoner, whomsoever they desired. Mark xv. 6.

Striving against; opposed in desire; unwilling; disinclined; loth. Reluctant, but in vain. Milton. Reluctant now I touched the trembling string. Tickell.

Hence, to check; to restrain; to keep back. Desire of wine and all delicious drinks, . . . Thou couldst repress. Milton.

Of or pertaining to one who is given up to wickedness; as, reprobate conduct. "Reprobate desire." Shak.

The act of asking for anything desired; expression of desire or demand; solicitation; prayer; petition; entreaty. I will marry her, sir, at your request. Shak.

, claimed, or done; declaration of change of opinion; recantation. Other men's insatiable desire of revenge hath wholly beguiled both church and state of the benefit of all my either retractions or Eikon Basilike.

o Ant: progressive. "Progressive and not retrograde." Bacon. It is most retrograde to our desire. Shak.