Search the Dictionary

A small sail carried at or near the stern of small boats; -- called also jigger, and mizzen.

The upper stratum of coal, as nearest the light or surface.

To cut off; to separate. [Obs.] Our seat denies us traffic here; The sea, too near, decides us from the rest. Fuller.

The upper part or top of a mansard roof or curb roof when made nearly flat.

e front or outer part; of great horizontal dimension (measured backward from the front or nearer part, mouth, etc.); as, a deep cave or recess or wound; a gallery ten seats deep; a company of soldiers six files deep. Shadowing squadrons deep. Milton. Safely in harbor Is the king's ship in the deep nook. Shak.…

rd mayor craves aid . . . to defend the city. Shak. God defend the right! Shak. A village near it was defended by the river. Clarendon.

y in an edifice; deformity of character. Confounded, that her Maker's eyes Should look so near upon her foul deformities. Milton.

ourse of life; dead; deceased. "Defunct organs." Shak. The boar, defunct, lay tripped up, near. Byron.

The Dolphin, a constellation near the equator and east of Aquila.

lower degree. To depress the pole (Naut.), to cause the sidereal pole to appear lower or nearer the horizon, as by sailing toward the equator.

A race for three-old horses, run annually at Epsom (near London), for the Derby stakes. It was instituted by the 12th Earl of Derby, in

, Discovery or view, as of an army seen at a distance. [Obs.] Near, and on speedy foot; the main descry Stands on the hourly thought. Shak.

To make desolate; to leave alone; to deprive of inhabitants; as, the earth was nearly desolated by the flood.

t one end, and furnished with two wires passing through its sides at opposite points, and nearly meeting, for the purpose of exploding gaseous mixtures by an electric spark, as in gas analysis, etc.

a method; to stray or go astray; to err; to digress; to diverge; to vary. Thus Pegasus, a nearer way to take, May boldly deviate from the common track. Pope.

ive of vowel quality. -- De*vo`cal*i*za"tion, n. If we take a high vowel, such as (i) [= nearly i of bit], and devocalize it, we obtain a hiss which is quite distinct enough to stand for a weak (jh). H. Sweet.

A translucent, gummy, amorphous substance, nearly tasteless and odorless, used as a substitute for gum, for sizing, etc., and obtained from starch by the action of heat, acids, or diastase. It is of somewhat variable composition, containing several carbohydrates which change easily to their respective varieties of suga…

The form of speech of a limited region or people, as distinguished from ether forms nearly related to it; a variety or subdivision of a language; speech characterized by local peculiarities or specific circumstances; as, the Ionic and Attic were dialects of Greece; the Yorkshire dialect; the dialect of the learned. In…

power, placed at a distance in the narrower part of the converging cone of rays, usually near the middle of the tube.

A functionary in ancient Athens answering nearly to the modern juryman.