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Conducive; contributing; tending to promote or facilitate; advantageous; convenient. A place very favorable for the making levies of men. Clarendon. The temper of the climate, favorable to generation, health, and long life. Sir W. Temple.

A mineral of a brownish black color, essentially a tantalo- niobate of yttrium, erbium, and cerium; -- so called after Robert Ferguson.

A sudden burst of light; a flood of light instantaneously appearing and disappearing; a momentary blaze; as, a flash of lightning.

An herb used in medicine (Plantago Psyllium), named from the shape of its seeds. Loudon.

, fanciful, or wanton movements, by way of ornament, parade, bravado, etc.; to play with fantastic and irregular motion. Impetuous spread The stream, and smoking flourished o'er his head. Pope.

billiards (called a scratch in the United States); hence, any accidental or unexpected advantage; as, he won by a fluke. [Cant, Eng.] A. Trollope.

sing with a clear, soft note, like that of a flute. Knaves are men, That lute and flute fantastic tenderness. Tennyson. The redwing flutes his o-ka-lee. Emerson.

thing that serves by contrast of color or quality to adorn or set off another thing to advantage. As she a black silk cap on him began To set, for foil of his milk- white to serve. Sir P. Sidney. Hector has a foil to set him off. Broome.

folly; a professional jester or buffoon; a retainer formerly kept to make sport, dressed fantastically in motley, with ridiculous accouterments. Can they think me . . . their fool or jester Milton. April fool, Court fool, etc. See under April, Court, etc. -- Fool's cap, a cap or hood to which bells were usually attach…

it. The fors and against. those in favor and those opposed; the pros and the cons; the advantages and the disadvantages. Jane Austen.

under forbear. Shenstone. The King In open battle or the tilting field Forbore his own advantage. Tennyson.

al; hence, a body of men prepared for action in other ways; as, the laboring force of a plantation. Is Lucius general of the forces Shak.

To relinquish the enjoyment or advantage of; to give up; to resign; to renounce; -- said of a thing already enjoyed, or of one within reach, or anticipated. All my patrimony,, If need be, I am ready to forego. Milton. Thy lovers must their promised heaven forego. Keble. [He] never forewent an opportunity of honest prof…

Superiority; advantage; start; precedence. And, but for ceremony, such a wretch . . . Had the forehand and vantage of a king. Shak.

t or fore part of anything. Flames in the forehead of the morning sky. Milton. So rich advantage of a promised glory As smiles upon the forehead of this action. Shak.

Not favorable; unpropitious; not fair or advantageous; as, a foul wind; a foul road; cloudy or rainy; stormy; not fair; -- said of the weather, sky, etc. So foul a sky clears not without a storm. Shak.

Deception deliberately practiced with a view to gaining an unlawful or unfair advantage; artifice by which the right or interest of another is injured; injurious stratagem; deceit; trick. If success a lover's toil attends, Few ask, if fraud or force attained his ends. Pope.

The state of being fresh. The Scots had the advantage both for number and freshness of men. Hayward. And breathe the freshness of the open air. Dryden. Her cheeks their freshness lose and wonted grace. Granville.

articulation, and hence capable of being continued or prolonged; -- said of certain consonantal sounds, as f, v, s, z, etc. -- n.

The figurework, often fantastic and delicate, which moisture sometimes forms in freezing, as upon a window pane or a flagstone.