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A machine for combining and drawing fibers of flax to form a sliver preparatory to spinning.

A horse used in drawing a stage. [Colloq.]

To pour out; to empty; to tap and begin drawing from; as, to start a water cask.

A state of standing or rest; equilibrium. [Obs.] All progression is performed by drawing on or impelling forward some part which was before in station, or at quiet. Sir T. Browne.

d stomach. Shak. Stomach pump (Med.), a small pump or syringe with a flexible tube, for drawing liquids from the stomach, or for injecting them into it. -- Stomach tube (Med.), a long flexible tube for introduction into the stomach. -- Stomach worm (Zoöl.), the common roundworm (Ascaris lumbricoides) found in the hum…

ly straight, -- used to ascertain whether a line is straight or a surface even, and for drawing straight lines.

To injure by drawing, stretching, or the exertion of force; as, the gale strained the timbers of the ship.

A military punishment formerly practiced, which consisted in drawing an offender to the top of a beam and letting him fall to the length of the rope, by which means a limb was often dislocated. Shak.

The art of drawing up an army, or any given number of men, in any geometrical figure, or of estimating or expressing the number of men in such a figure.

A bunch of hackled flax prepared for drawing into slivers. Knight.

to a point, or any similar implement, used to rub down the lines of a crayon or pencil drawing, in shading it, or for shading drawings by producing tints and gradations from crayon, etc., in powder.

Characterized by refinement and niceness in drawing distinctions; nicely discriminating; -- said of persons; as, a subtle logician; refined; tenuous; sinuous; insinuating; hence, penetrative or pervasive; -- said of the mind; its faculties, or its operations; as, a subtle intellect; a subtle imagination; a subtle proce…

The withdrawing or withholding from a person of some right to which he is entitled by law.

The act of drawing with the mouth.

Drawing milk from the mother or dam; hence, colloquially, young, inexperienced, as, a sucking infant; a sucking calf. I suppose you are a young barrister, sucking lawyer, or that sort of thing. Thackeray. Sucking bottle, a feeding bottle. See under Bottle. -- Sucking fish (Zoöl.), the remora. See Remora. Baird. -- Su…

The act or process of sucking; the act of drawing, as fluids, by exhausting the air. Suction chamber, the chamber of a pump into which the suction pipe delivers. -- Suction pipe, Suction valve, the induction pipe, and induction valve, of a pump, respectively. -- Suction pump, the common pump, in which the water is ra…

ove in a stately manner; as, the wind sweeps across the plain; a woman sweeps through a drawing-room.

The union, or drawing together into one syllable, of two vowels that are ordinarily separated in syllabification; synecphonesis; -- the opposite of diæresis.

ts; as, to take up lost motion, as in a bearing; also, to make tight, as by winding, or drawing; as, to take up slack thread in sewing. (r) To make up; to compose; to settle; as, to take up a quarrel. [Obs.] Shak. -- To take up arms. Same as To take arms, above. -- To take upon one's self. (a) To assume; to undertake…

That which takes up or tightens; specifically, a device in a sewing machine for drawing up the slack thread as the needle rises, in completing a stitch.