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A kind of furnace used in refining, to separate the metal from cinders and other foreign matter. Chambers.

sea to take observations of the sun's amplitude at the time of its rising or setting, to find the variation of the compass.

A bullfinch. Rom. of R.

An animal of Peru (Lama paco), having long, fine, wooly hair, supposed by some to be a domesticated variety of the llama.

The strawberry finch, a small Indian song bird (Estrelda amandava), commonly caged and kept for fighting. The female is olive brown; the male, in summer, mostly crimson; -- called also red waxbill. [Written also amaduvad and avadavat.]

fewness of their enemies, came down amain. Milton. That striping giant, ill-bred and scoffing, shouts amain. T. Parker.

ng; quibble; circumlocution; indirect mode of speech. After many ambages, perspicuously define what this melancholy is. Burton.

il in alluvial soils, with beds of lignite, or on the seashore in many places. It takes a fine polish, and is used for pipe mouthpieces, beads, etc., and as a basis for a fine varnish. By friction, it becomes strongly electric.

Strongly desirous; -- followed by of or the infinitive; as, ambitious to be or to do something. I was not ambitious of seeing this ceremony. Evelyn. Studious of song, and yet ambitious not to sing in vain. Cowper.

the same side are moved at the same time, alternating with the legs on the other side. "A fine easy amble." B. Jonson.

used as a noun, to demote: (a) concurrence in belief, or in a statement; assent; (b) the final word or act; (c) Christ as being one who is true and faithful. And let all the people say, Amen. Ps. cvi. 48. Amen, amen, I say to thee, except a man be born again, he can not see the kingdom of God. John ii. 3. Rhemish Tran…

A pecuniary punishment or fine; a reparation or recantation. Amende honorable(#). (Old French Law) A species of infamous punishment in which the offender, being led into court with a rope about his neck, and a lighted torch in his hand, begged pardon of his God, the court, etc. In popular language, the phrase now denot…

at the discretion of the court; also, a mulct or penalty thus imposed. It differs from a fine,in that the latter is, or was originally, a fixed and certain sum prescribed by statue for an offense; but an amercement is arbitrary. Hence, the act or practice of affeering. [See Affeer.] Blackstone.

A genus of fresh-water ganoid fishes, exclusively confined to North America; called bowfin in Lake Champlain, dogfish in Lake Erie, and mudfish in South Carolina, etc. See Bowfin.

An order of ganoid fishes of which Amis is type. See Bowfin and Ganoidei.

The unit of electric current; -- defined by the International Electrical Congress in 1893 and by U. S. Statute as, one tenth of the unit of current of the C. G. S. system of electro-magnetic units, or the practical equivalent of the unvarying current which, when passed through a standard solution of nitrate of silver i…

in receiving their gold. Holland. Being amused with grief, fear, and fright, he could not find the house. Fuller.

A hydrocarbon radical, C5H11, of the paraffine series found in amyl alcohol or fusel oil, etc.

This word is properly an adjective, but is commonly called the indefinite article. It is used before nouns of the singular number only, and signifies one, or any, but somewhat less emphatically. In such expressions as "twice an hour," "once an age," a shilling an ounce (see 2d A, 2), it has a distributive force, and is…

A group of teleostean fishes destitute of spiny fin-rays, as the cod.