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as a right to recover money due on a contract, or damages for a tort, which can not be enforced against a reluctant party without suit. -- Chose in possession, a thing in possession, as distinguished from a thing in action. -- Chose local, a thing annexed to a place, as a mill. -- Chose transitory, a thing which is…

A seat in the porch of a church. Shak.

Vigilance un guarding against evil from every quarter; caution. [Travel] forces circumspectness on those abroad, who at home are nursed in security. Sir H. Wotton.

ought by action or suit distinct from criminal proceedings. Civil action, an action to enforce the rights or redress the wrongs of an individual, not involving a criminal proceeding. -- Civil architecture, the architecture which is employed in constructing buildings for the purposes of civil life, in distinction from…

Strong pinchers or forceps.

ree from lime, iron, or an alkali, and therefore infusible, and used for fire brick. -- Porcelain clay, a very pure variety, formed directly from the decomposition of feldspar, and often called kaolin. -- Potter's clay, a tolerably pure kind, free from iron.

To part or divide by force; to split or rive; to cut. O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain. Shak.

, etc.; esp. to draw up the clews of a square sail to the yard. To clew down (Naut.), to force (a yard) down by hauling on the clew lines. -- To clew up (Naut.), to draw (a sail) up to the yard, as for furling.

The sound made when a cork is forcibly drawn from a bottle. "The cloop of a cork wrenched from a bottle." Thackeray.

To force; to compel; to drive. [Obs.] The faith and service of Christ ought to be voluntary and not coacted. Foxe.

Force; compulsion, either in restraining or impelling. Sojth.

ing; now, under the control of the admiralty, drilled as a naval reserve. [Eng.] (b) The force employed in lifesaving stations along the seacoast. [U. S.] -- Coast rat (Zoöl.), a South African mammal (Bathyergus suillus), about the size of a rabbit, remarkable for its extensive burrows; -- called also sand mole. -- Co…

The Brazilian porcupine (Cercolades, or Sphingurus, prehensiles), remarkable for its prehensile tail.

To restrain by force, especially by law or authority; to repress; to curb. Burke. Punishments are manifold, that they may coerce this profligate sort. Ayliffe.

The application to another of either physical or moral force. When the force is physical, and cannot be resisted, then the act produced by it is a nullity, so far as concerns the party coerced. When the force is moral, then the act, though voidable, is imputable to the party doing it, unless he be so paralyzed by terro…

e power can only influence us to outward practice. Bp. Warburton. Coercive or Coercitive force (Magnetism), the power or force which in iron or steel produces a slowness or difficulty in imparting magnetism to it, and also interposes an obstacle to the return of a bar to its natural state when active magnetism has ceas…

The quality of being cogent; power of compelling conviction; conclusiveness; force. An antecedent argument of extreme cogency. J. H. Newman.

Compelling, in a physical sense; powerful. [Obs.] The cogent force of nature. Prior.

In a cogent manner; forcibly; convincigly; conclusively. Locke.

a homogeneous body together; as, cohesive attraction; producing cohesion; as, a cohesive force.