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A fabled monster, half man and half bull, confined in the labyrinth constructed by Dædalus in Crete.

A coin; a half farthing. [Obs.] Wyclif (Mark xii. 42)

section equal to a given unit, as a square inch or foot, to double, or to compress it to half, its original length, were that degree of elongation or compression possible, or within the limits of elasticity; -- called also Young's modulus. -- Modulus of rupture, the measure of the force necessary to break a given sub…

One of two equal parts; a half; as, a moiety of an estate, of goods, or of profits; the moiety of a jury, or of a nation. Shak. The more beautiful moiety of his majesty's subject. Addison.

ssel of the sixteenth century. Monkey boat. (Naut.) (a) A small boat used in docks. (b) A half-decked boat used on the River Thames. -- Monkey block (Naut.), a small single block strapped with a swivel. R. H. Dana, Jr. -- Monkey flower (Bot.), a plant of the genus Mimulus; -- so called from the appearance of its gapi…

A crescentlike outwork. See Half-moon. Moon blindness. (a) (Far.) A kind of ophthalmia liable to recur at intervals of three or four weeks. (b) (Med.) Hemeralopia. -- Moon dial, a dial used to indicate time by moonlight. -- Moon face, a round face like a full moon. -- Moon madness, lunacy. [Poetic] -- Moon month, a…

An earthenware compartment or oven, often shaped like a half cylinder, used in furnaces to protect objects heated from the direct action of the fire, as in scorification of ores, cupellation of ore buttons, etc.

Half-rotten straw, or any like substance strewn on the ground, as over the roots of plants, to protect from heat, drought, etc., and to preserve moisture.

A complaint half suppressed, or uttered in a low, muttering voice. Chaucer. Some discontents there are, some idle murmurs. Dryden.

The half-wild horse of the plains in Mexico, California, etc. It is small, hardy, and easily sustained. Mustard grape (Bot.), a species of grape (Vitis candicans), native in Arkansas and Texas. The berries are small, light-colored, with an acid skin and a sweet pulp.

of liberty. Hawthorne. See how in warlike muster they appear, In rhombs, and wedges, and half-moons, and wings. Milton.

A measure of space equal to half an M (or em); an en.

ion, or by title only; not in reality; as, a friend in name. -- In the name of. (a) In behalf of; by the authority of. " I charge you in the duke's name to obey me." Shak.

ing, an era characterized by late remains in stone. The Neolithic era includes the latter half of the "Stone age;" the human relics which belong to it are associated with the remains of animals not yet extinct. The kitchen middens of Denmark, the lake dwellings of Switzerland, and the stockaded islands, or "crannogs,"…

One of the night brawlers of London formerly noted for breaking windows with half-pence. [Cant] Arbuthnot.

the Spanish real, a coin formerly current in the United States, as valued at twelve and a half cents.

A point halfway between the fess point and the middle base point of an escutcheon; -- called also navel point. See Escutcheon.

fect, or of no legal effect. Right of nullification (U. S. Hist.), the right claimed in behalf of a State to nullify or make void, by its sovereign act or decree, an enactment of the general government which it deems unconstitutional.

af. (Bot.) (a) A leaf twisted or inclined from the normal position. (b) A leaf having one half different from the other. -- Oblique line (Geom.), a line that, meeting or tending to meet another, makes oblique angles with it. -- Oblique motion (Mus.), a kind of motion or progression in which one part ascends or descen…

A weight of twelve grains; or, according to some, of ten grains, or half a scruple. [Written also obol.]