Search the Dictionary

To be bewildered, or perplexed. A puzzling fool, that heeds nothing. L'Estrange.

To secure prey; to prey, as a vulture or harpy. L'Estrange.

nd lambs . . . at the mercy of cats and wolves . . . must never expect better quarter. L'Estrange.

what is usual or normal; differing in some odd way from what is ordinary; odd; singular; strange; whimsical; as, a queer story or act. " A queer look." W. Irving.

A subtilty; an equivocation. [Obs.] Shak. By some strange quiddit or some wrested clause. Drayton.

[Obs.] He was bid at his first coming to take off the range, and let down the cinders. L'Estrange.

that doth anything rashly, must do it willingly; for he was free to deliberate or not. L'Estrange.

To scold; to rail at. L'Estrange. To rattle off. (a) To tell glibly or noisily; as, to rattle off a story. (b) To rail at; to scold. "She would sometimes rattle off her servants sharply." Arbuthnot.

elief; to reason one out of his plan. Men that will not be reasoned into their senses. L'Estrange.

Check; rebuff. [Obs.] L'Estrange. To be without rebuke, to live without giving cause of reproof or censure; to be blameless.

ble; to attract favor to. A decent boldness ever meets with friends, Succeeds, and e'en a stranger recommends. Pope.

t had pillaged the people, was . . . sentenced to refund what he had wrongfully taken. L'Estrange.

not much more reliable, being peopled in those agitated times by "unknown, unrecommended strangers, guilty-looking Tories, and very knavish Whigs." W. Irving.

He built his son a house of pleasure, and spared no cost to make a delicious retreat. L'Estrange. That pleasing shade they sought, a soft retreat From sudden April showers, a shelter from the heat. Dryden.

rom better to worse; misfortune; a check or defeat; as, the enemy met with a reverse. The strange reverse of fate you see; I pitied you, now you may pity me. Dryden. By a reverse of fortune, Stephen becomes rich. Lamb.

nd tell to them, my secret, That solved the riddle which I had proposed. Milton. 'T was a strange riddle of a lady. Hudibras.

manner; -- commonly followed by out. Jack was rigged out in his gold and silver lace. L'Estrange. To rig a purchase, to adapt apparatus so as to get a purchase for moving a weight, as with a lever, tackle, capstan, etc. -- To rig a ship (Naut.), to fit the shrouds, stays, braces, etc., to their respective masts and y…

Roguish. [Obs.] L'Estrange.

Part; office; duty; rôle. [Obs.] L'Estrange. Long roll (Mil.), a prolonged roll of the drums, as the signal of an attack by the enemy, and for the troops to arrange themselves in line. -- Master of the rolls. See under Master. -- Roll call, the act, or the time, of calling over a list names, as among soldiers. -- Ro…

Characterized by strangeness or variety; suggestive of adventure; suited to romance; wild; picturesque; -- applied to scenery; as, a romantic landscape.