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Dross, as of iron; the scale which files from iron when hammered; -- applied as a name to various minerals. Calcareous sinter, a loose banded variety of calcite formed by deposition from lime-bearing waters; calcareous tufa; travertine. -- Ceraunian sinter, fulgurite. -- Siliceous sinter, a light cellular or fibrous…

Consisting of, or resembling, a skeleton; consisting merely of the framework or outlines; having only certain leading features of anything; as, a skeleton sermon; a skeleton crystal. Skeleton bill, a bill or draft made out in blank as to the amount or payee, but signed by the acceptor. [Eng.] -- Skeleton key, a key wit…

ters is given in his "Tritical Essay upon the Faculties of the Human Mind;" but that is a mere skit compared with this strange performance. Leslie Stephen.

segments of which an animal, esp. an articulate or vertebrate, is composed; somatome; metamere. -- So*mit`ic, a.

Uttered, as an element of speech, with tone or proper vocal sound, as distinguished from mere breath sound; intonated; voiced; tonic; the opposite of nonvocal, or surd; -- sid of the vowels, semivowels, liquids, and nasals, and particularly of the consonants b, d, g hard, v, etc., as compared with their cognates p, t,…

hatred and contempt. Many of the Sophists doubdtless card not for truth or morality, and merely professed to teach how to make the worse appear the better reason; but there scems no reason to hold that they were a special class, teaching special opinions; even Socrates and Plato were sometimes styled Sophists. Liddell…

king 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 the human voice may be so intensified as to be conveyed to a…

A conclusion to which the mind comes by speculating; mere theory; view; notion; conjecture. From him Socrates derived the principles of morality, and most part of his natural speculations. Sir W. temple. To his speculations on these subjects he gave the lofty name of the "Oracles of Reason." Macaulay.…

ion of notions impressed on the mind by the Deity, as maintained by Berkeley, or else the mere educt of the mind itself, as taught by Fichte.

Done in jest, or for mere play; sportive. They are no sportful productions of the soil. Bentley. -- Sport"ful*ly, adv. -- Sport"ful*ness, n.

il, or of the privy council only with the addition of certain judges. It could proceed on mere rumor or examine witnesses; it could apply torture. It was abolished by the Long Parliament in 1641. Encyc. Brit.

Mere; sheer; gross; entire; downright. He pronounces the citation stark nonsense. Collier. Rhetoric is very good or stark naught; there's no medium in rhetoric. Selden.

Resting; acting by mere weight without motion; as, statical pressure; static objects.

The doctrine of the elementary requisites of mere thought. Sir W. Hamilton.

One not privy or party an act, contract, or title; a mere intruder or intermeddler; one who interferes without right; as, actual possession of land gives a good title against a stranger having no title; as to strangers, a mortgage is considered merely as a pledge; a mere stranger to the levy.

Anything proverbially worthless; the least possible thing; a mere trifle. I set not a straw by thy dreamings. Chaucer.

One who stutters; a stammerer. [Obs.] Bacon.

One who stutters; a stammerer.

That which is grand in nature or art, as distinguished from the merely beautiful.

the control or government of another; obedience; compliance. Submission, dauphin! 't is a mere French word; We English warrious wot not what it means. Shak.