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A class of persons, especially in the Middle Ages, who offered themselves and their property to a monastery. Addis & Arnold.

eir observances. Chaucer. Use all the observance of civility. Shak. Some represent to themselves the whole of religion as consisting in a few easy observances. Rogers. O I that wasted time to tend upon her, To compass her with sweet observances! Tennyson.

ne has observed; a remark. "That's a foolish observation." Shak. To observations which ourselves we make We grow more partial for the observer's sake. Pope.

ncy; requirement; necessity; as, I have no occasion for firearms. After we have served ourselves and our own occasions. Jer. Taylor. When my occasions took me into France. Burke.

ave cause to occupy more chaplains than six. Eng. Statute (Hen. VIII. ) They occupied themselves about the Sabbath. 2 Macc. viii. 27.

The offerings themselves.

the hard white wood of certain trees of the genus Elæodendron, and also to the trees themselves.

ing disgrace; reproachful; scurrilous; as, opprobrious language. They . . . vindicate themselves in terms no less opprobrious than those by which they are attacked. Addison.

; in most cases; as, a winter more than ordinarily severe. Those who ordinarily pride themselves not a little upon their penetration. I. Taylor.

body) so as to show its relation to other bodies, or the relation of its parts among themselves. A crystal is orientated when placed in its proper position so as to exhibit its symmetry. E. S. Dana.

Over and over; -- applied to a style of sewing, or to a seam, in which two edges, usually selvedges, are sewed together by passing each stitch over both.

, found in rivers of Africa and South America. They are irregular in form, and attach themselves to rocks like oysters, but they have a pearly interior, and are allied to the fresh-water mussels. -- Oyster bed, a breeding place for oysters; a place in a tidal river or other water on or near the seashore, where oysters…

The act of placing pales or stripes on cloth; also, the stripes themselves. [Obs.] Chaucer. Paling board, one of the slabs sawed from the sides of a log to fit it to be sawed into boards. [Eng.]

e stores, hospital stores, provisions, etc., when brought together; also, the objects themselves; as, a park of wagons; a park of artillery.

trolled by a powerful set of springs. This arrangement permits the feet to accomodate themselves to obstacles even such as steps or stairs. The pedrail was invented by one B. J. Diplock of London, Eng.

kedness. Matt. xxii. 18. You may, fair lady, Perceive I speak sincerely. Shak. Till we ourselves see it with our own eyes, and perceive it by our own understandings, we are still in the dark. Locke.

itions of the elders, and whose pretensions to superior sanctity led them to separate themselves from the other Jews.

marine bivalve mollusks of the genus Pholas, or family Pholadidæ. They bore holes for themselves in clay, peat, and soft rocks.

sion, sometimes a single word, but usually two or more words forming an expression by themselves, or being a portion of a sentence; as, an adverbial phrase. "Convey" the wise it call. "Steal!" foh! a fico for the phrase. Shak.

s partake of a collation or repast (usually in the open air, and from food carried by themselves).