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; to give proper form or figure to. I was shapen in iniquity. Ps. li. 5. Grace shaped her limbs, and beauty decked her face. Prior.

To climb a mast, tree, rope, or the like, by embracing it alternately with the arms and legs, without help of steps, spurs, or the like; -- used with up; as, to shin up a mast. [Slang]

The joint, or the region of the joint, by which the fore limb is connected with the body or with the shoulder girdle; the projection formed by the bones and muscles about that joint.

flower. -- Silk vessel. (Zoöl.) Same as Silk gland, above. -- Virginia silk (Bot.), a climbing plant (Periploca Græca) of the Milkweed family, having a silky tuft on the seeds. It is native in Southern Europe.

constituting the family Bradypodidæ, and the suborder Tardigrada. They have long exserted limbs and long prehensile claws. Both jaws are furnished with teeth (see Illust. of Edentata), and the ears and tail are rudimentary. They inhabit South and Central America and Mexico.

A genus of perennial climbing plants, usually with a prickly woody stem; green brier, or cat brier. The rootstocks of certain species are the source of the medicine called sarsaparilla.

An East Indian climbing plant (Strychnos colubrina) having a bitter taste, and supposed to be a remedy for the bite of the hooded serpent.

A cradle, as for a broken limb. See Cradle, 6.

Of or pertaining to the spheres. [R.] She can teach ye how to climb Higher than the sphery chime. Milton.

ent armor formed of thin plates of metal, usually overlapping each other and allowing the limbs to move freely. -- Splint bone (Anat.), one of the rudimentary, splintlike metacarpal or metatarsal bones on either side of the cannon bone in the limbs of the horse and allied animals. -- Splint coal. See Splent coal, und…

To fasten or confine with splinters, or splints, as a broken limb. Bp. Wren.

To spread and stretch the body or limbs carelessly in a horizontal position; to lie with the limbs stretched out ungracefully.

serves for support; a staff; a prop; a crutch; a cane. His weak steps governing And aged limbs on cypress stadle stout. Spenser.

e staff of life." Swift. -- Staff tree (Bot.), any plant of the genus Celastrus, mostly climbing shrubs of the northern hemisphere. The American species (C. scandens) is commonly called bittersweet. See 2d Bittersweet, 3 (b). -- To set, or To put, up, or down, one's staff, to take up one's residence; to lodge. [Obs.]…

To stiffen. [R.] If horror have not starked your limbs. H. Taylor.

e; having the symmetry, or other excellence, of a statue artistically made; as, statuesquelimbs; a statuesque attitude. Their characters are mostly statuesque even in this respect, that they have no background. Hare.

Steep; precipitous. [Poetic] No more, my goats, shall I belong you climb The steepy cliffs, or crop the flow'ry thyme. Dryden.

A genus of climbing asclepiadaceous shrubs, of Madagascar, Malaya, etc. They have fleshy or coriaceous opposite leaves, and large white waxy flowers in cymes.

Not easily bent; not flexible or pliant; not limber or flaccid; rigid; firm; as, stiff wood, paper, joints. [They] rising on stiff pennons, tower The mid aërial sky. Milton.

der to the top of a beam and letting him fall to the length of the rope, by which means a limb was often dislocated. Shak.