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fficer nearly answering to the more modern bailiff of the hundred; also, an officer whose duty was to attend on the king, and on the lord high steward in court, to arrest traitors and other offenders. He is now called sergeant-at-arms, and two of these officers, by allowance of the sovereign, attend on the houses of Pa…

Hence, a serious address; a lecture on one's conduct or duty; an exhortation or reproof; a homily; -- often in a depreciatory sense.

or person, by seizure or taking possession. -- To serve an office, to discharge a public duty. -- To serve a process (Law), in general, to read it, so as to give due notice to the party concerned, or to leave an attested copy with him or his attorney, or his usual place of abode. -- To serve a warrant, to read it, a…

The deed of one who serves; labor performed for another; duty done or required; office. I have served him from the hour of my nativity, . . . and have nothing at his hands for my service but blows. Shak. This poem was the last piece of service I did for my master, King Charles. Dryden. To go on the forlorn hope is a se…

Prepared for rendering service; capable of, or fit for, the performance of duty; hence, active; diligent. Courteous he was, lowly, and servysable. Chaucer. Bright-hearnessed angels sit in order serviceable. Milton. Seeing her so sweet and serviceable. Tennnyson. -- Serv"ice*a*ble*ness, n. -- Serv"ice*a*bly, adv.…

An undergraduate, partly supported by the college funds, whose duty it formerly was to wait at table. A servitor corresponded to a sizar in Cambridge and Dublin universities.

contact with them. -- To set the watch (Naut.), to place the starboard or port watch on duty. -- To set to, to attach to; to affix to. "He . . . hath set to his seal that God is true." John iii. 33. -- To set up. (a) To erect; to raise; to elevate; as, to set up a building, or a machine; to set up a post, a wall, a…

As an auxiliary, shall indicates a duty or necessity whose obligation is derived from the person speaking; as, you shall go; he shall go; that is, I order or promise your going. It thus ordinarily expresses, in the second and third persons, a command, a threat, or a promise. If the auxillary be emphasized, the command…

To avoid; to escape; to neglect; -- implying unfaithfulness or fraud; as, to shirk duty. The usual makeshift by which they try to shirk difficulties. Hare.

Duty paid for goods brought on shore. Grabb.

Neglect of, or failure in, performance of duty.

ince; as, to show the truth of a statement; to show the causes of an event. I 'll show my duty by my timely care. Dryden.

er. -- Silver stick, a title given to the title field officer of the Life Guards when on duty at the palace. [Eng.] Thackeray. -- Silver tree (Bot.), a South African tree (Leucadendron argenteum) with long, silvery, silky leaves. -- Silver trout, (Zoöl.) See Trout. -- Silver wedding. See under Wedding. -- Silver w…

To depart voluntarily from the path of duty prescribed by God to man; to violate the divine law in any particular, by actual transgression or by the neglect or nonobservance of its injunctions; to violate any known rule of duty; -- often followed by against. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned. Ps. li. 4. All have s…

or false pretense; sincereness. I protest, in the sincerity of love. Shak. Sincerity is a duty no less plain than important. Knox.

The state or relation of being a sister; the office or duty of a sister. She . . . abhorr'd Her proper blood, and left to do the part Of sisterhood, to do that of a wife. Daniel.

Remiss; backward; not using due diligence or care; not earnest or eager; as, slack in duty or service. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness. 2 Pet. iii. 9.

as to the use of spirituous liquors; as, a man of sobriety. Public sobriety is a relative duty. Blackstone.

To save or gain, as by frugality; to reserve, as from some occupation, use, or duty. All the time he could spare from the necessary cares of his weighty charge, he Knolles.

is itself uniformly produced by a definite and peculiar poison or organism. -- Specific duty. (Com.) See under Duty. -- Specific gravity. (Physics) See under Gravity. -- Specific heat (Physics), the quantity of heat required to raise temperature of a body one degree, taking as the unit of measure the quantity requi…