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ic of different countries. Mastiff bat (Zoöl.) , any bat of the genus Molossus; so called because the face somewhat resembles that of a mastiff.

A puppet; a doll; originally, an idol, because in the Middle Ages it was generally believed that the Mohammedans worshiped images representing Mohammed. [Obs.] Wyclif. Beau. & Fl.

vocabulary. -- May fly (Zoöl.), any species of Ephemera, and allied genera; -- so called because the mature flies of many species appear in May. See Ephemeral fly, under Ephemeral. -- May game, any May-day sport. -- May lady, the queen or lady of May, in old May games. -- May lily (Bot.), the lily of the valley (Co…

pressive laws against Jews, which have given occasion for great persecution; -- so called because they received the assent of the czar in May, 1882, and because likened to the Prussian May laws (see Kulturkampf).

printed with movable metal types; -- printed by Gutenberg at Mentz, 1450-55; -- so called because a copy was found in the Mazarine Library, at Paris, about 1760. -- Mazarine blue, a deep blue color, named in honor of Cardinal Mazarin.

The third above the keynote; -- so called because it divides the interval between the tonic and dominant into two thirds.

The saccharine substance dulcite; -- so called because found in the leaves of cowwheat (Melampyrum). See Dulcite.

sive to the smell; as, mephitic odors. Mephitic air (Chem.), carbon dioxide; -- so called because of its deadly suffocating power. See Carbonic acid, under Carbonic.

agreeable odor, C6H10O, obtained by distilling a mixture of sugar and lime; -- so called because formerly regarded as a polymeric modification of acetone.

Discoidal by derivation; -- applied especially to the placenta of man and apes, because it is supposed to have been derived from a diffused placenta.

rvoid origin found floating in the air, and resembling bits of coarse paper; -- so called because formerly supposed to fall from meteors. -- Meteoric showers, periodical exhibitions of shooting stars, occuring about the 9th or 10th of August and 13th of November, more rarely in April and December, and also at some oth…

, a series of saturated hydrocarbons, of which methane is the first member and type, and (because of their general chemical inertness and indifference) called also the paraffin (little affinity) series. The lightest members are gases, as methane, ethane; intermediate members are liquids, as hexane, heptane, etc. (found…

A moth or lepidopterous insect; -- so called because the wings appear as if covered with white dust or powder, like a miller's clothes. Called also moth miller.

the black of the elbow due to inflammation of the bursa over the olecranon; -- so called because of frequent occurrence in miners. -- Miner's inch, in hydraulic mining, the amount of water flowing under a given pressure in a given time through a hole one inch in diameter. It is a unit for measuring the quantity of wa…

A thin-bladed dagger; so called, in the Middle Ages, because used to give the death wound or "mercy" stroke to a fallen adversary.

entablature, and sometimes, less ornamented, in the Ionic and other orders; -- so called because of its arrangement at regulated distances.

d lizard of the genus Varanus; esp., the Egyptian species (V. Niloticus), which is useful because it devours the eggs and young of the crocodile. It is sometimes five or six feet long.

. Monk bat (Zoöl.), a South American and West Indian bat (Molossus nasutus); -- so called because the males live in communities by themselves. -- Monk bird(Zoöl.), the friar bird. -- Monk seal (Zoöl.), a species of seal (Monachus albiventer) inhabiting the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, and the adjacent parts of t…

A person engaged in illicit distilling; -- so called because the work is largely done at night. [Cant, U.S.]

A kind of allegorical play, so termed because it consisted of discourses in praise of morality between actors representing such characters as Charity, Faith, Death, Vice, etc. Such plays were occasionally exhibited as late as the reign of Henry VIII. Strutt.