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A writer of lampoons. [Obs.] The squibs are those who in the common phrase of the world are called libelers, lampooners, and pamphleteers. Tatler.

whole ascent of a story. -- Pair of stairs, a set or flight of stairs. -- pair, in this phrase, having its old meaning of a set. See Pair, n., 1. -- Run of stars (Arch.), a single set of stairs, or section of a stairway, from one platform to the next. -- Stair rod, a rod, usually of metal, for holding a stair carpe…

The state in which anything is already. The phrase is also used retrospectively, as when, on a treaty of place, matters return to the status quo ante bellum, or are left in statu quo ante bellum, i.e., the state (or, in the state) before the war.

To take the stump, to engage in making public addresses for electioneering purposes; -- a phrase derived from the practice of using a stump for a speaker's platform in newly- settled districts. Hence also the phrases stump orator, stump speaker, stump speech, stump oratory, etc. [Colloq. U.S.]

Mode or phrase by which anything is formally designated; the title; the official designation of any important body; mode of address; as, the style of Majesty. One style to a gracious benefactor, another to a proud, insulting foe. Burke.

usurped and appropriated this expression to themselves. Accordingly, in their hands, the phrases conscious or thinking subject, and subject, mean precisely the same thing. Sir W. Hamilton.

obleness of thoughts, the magnificence of words, or the harmonious and lively turn of the phrase. Addison.

s, l, m, n, may fill the place of a vowel in a syllable. Adjoining syllables in a word or phrase need not to be marked off by a pause, but only by such an abatement and renewal, or reënforcement, of the stress as to give the feeling of separate impulses. See Guide to Pronunciation, §275.

The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning and another at the end of successive clauses; as, Justice came down from heaven to view the earth; Justice returned to heaven, and left the earth.

Flattery; soft phrases. [Slang]

solution; -- used in general senses, limited by a following complement, in many idiomatic phrases; as, to take a resolution; I take the liberty to say.

the instructive hours they passed. Pope. Their talk, when it was not made up of nautical phrases, was too commonly made up of oaths and curses. Macaulay.

Of or pertaining to the Talmud; contained in the Talmud; as, Talmudic Greek; Talmudical phrases. Lightfoot.

A translation or paraphrase of some portion of the Old Testament Scriptures in the Chaldee or Aramaic language or dialect.

One who uses tautological words or phrases.

the same meaning in different words; needless repetition of an idea in different words or phrases; a representation of anything as the cause, condition, or consequence of itself, as in the following lines: -- The dawn is overcast, the morning lowers, And heavily in clouds brings on the day. Addison.…

nt parts of the body, especially of the fluids, as the bile, blood, lymph, etc. Hence the phrases, bilious or choleric temperament, sanguine temperament, etc., implying a predominance of one of these fluids and a corresponding influence on the temperament. Equal temperament (Mus.), that in which the variations from mat…

work placed under each end of the taffrail. J. Knowels. In term, in set terms; in formal phrase. [Obs.] I can not speak in term. Chaucer. -- Term fee (Law) (a), a fee by the term, chargeable to a suitor, or by law fixed and taxable in the costs of a cause for each or any term it is in court. -- Terms of a proportion…

A mode of speech peculiar to the Teutons; a Teutonic idiom, phrase, or expression; a Teutonic mode or custom; a Germanism.

note or commentary is written; the original words of an author, in distinction from a paraphrase, annotation, or commentary. Chaucer.