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To variegate or diversify with different qualities, color, scenes, or events; esp., to subject to frequent alternations of prosterity and adversity. Our minds are, as it were, checkered with truth and falsehood. Addison.

A short rein looped over the check hook to prevent a horse from lowering his head; -- called also a bearing rein.

To utter a shout or shouts of applause, triumph, etc. And even the ranks of Tusculum Could scare forbear to cheer. Macaulay.

erness and affection; to nurture with care; to protect and aid. We were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children. 1 Thess. ii. 7.

To ruminate mentally; to meditate on. He chews revenge, abjuring his offense. Prior. To chew the cud, to chew the food ocer again, as a cow; to ruminate; hence, to meditate. Every beast the parteth the hoof, and cleaveth the cleft into two claws, and cheweth the cud among the beasts, that ye shall eat. Deut. xxiv. 6.…

e of a thousand things; especially, a period of a thousand years. The world, then in the seventh chiliad, will be assumed up unto God. Sir. T. More.

The art or practice of foretelling events, or of telling the fortunes or the disposition of persons by inspecting the hand; palmistry.

To shoot out; to sprout. I have known barley chit in seven hours after it had been thrown forth. Mortimer.

ny space which it is desired to fill, esp. something to steady a cask or other body, or prevent it from moving, by fitting into the space around or beneath it.

ter at a short distance (usually 2½ to 3 inches) to the rear of the muzzle, in order to prevent the rapid dispersion of the shot.

To interrupt; -- with in or out. This fellow interrupted the sermon, even suddenly chopping in. Latimer.

sical chords or strings; to string; to tune. When Jubal struck the chorded shell. Dryden. Even the solitary old pine tree chords his harp. Beecher.

osed to behold what passed in the acts of a tragedy, and to sing the sentiments which the events suggested in couplets or verses between the acts; also, that which was thus sung by the chorus. What the lofty, grave tragedians taught In chorus or iambic. Milton.

Selected from a number; picked out; choice. Seven hundred chosen men left-handed. Judg. xx. 16.

An assessment equal to a fourth part of the revenue. [India] J. Mill.

or suitable for, Christmas. -- Christmas day. Same as Christmas. -- Christmas eve, the evening before Christmas. -- Christmas fern (Bot.), an evergreen North American fern (Aspidium acrostichoides), which is much used for decoration in winter. -- Christmas flower, Christmas rose, the black hellebore, a poisonous p…

An historical register or account of facts or events disposed in the order of time.

A writer of a chronicle; a recorder of events in the order of time; an historian. Such an honest chronicler as Griffith. Shak.

Relating to chronology; containing an account of events in the order of time; according to the order of time; as, chronological tables. Raleigh. -- Chron`o*log"ic*al*ly, adv.

A person who investigates dates of events and transactions; one skilled in chronology. That learned noise and dust of the chronologist is wholly to be avoided. Locke. THe most exact chronologers tell us that Christ was born in October, and not in December. John Knox.