Search the Dictionary

Resembling the true mollusks; belonging to the Molluscoidea. -- n.

To be dull and spiritless. "Moping melancholy." Milton. A sickly part of one true sense Could not so mope. Shak.

(Biol.) See Morula. -- Paper mulberry, a tree (Broussonetia papyrifera), related to the true mulberry, used in Polynesia for making tapa cloth by macerating and pounding the inner bark, and in China and Japan for the manufacture of paper. It is seen as a shade tree in America.

An old name for mosses in the widest sense, including the true mosses and also hepaticæ and sphagna.

Of or pertaining to the Muscicapidæ, a family of birds that includes the true flycatchers.

A large genus of tropical American trees and shrubs, nearly related to the true myrtles (Myrtus), from which they differ in having very few seeds in each berry.

differ in having the body made up of numerous similar segments, nearly all of which bear true jointed legs. They have one pair of antennæ, three pairs of mouth organs, and numerous trachaæ, similar to those of true insects. The larvæ, when first hatched, often have but three pairs of legs. See Centiped, Galleyworm, Mi…

Having a true natural luster without being cut; -- applied by jewelers to a precious stone.

Springing from true sentiment; not artifical or exaggerated; -- said of action, delivery, etc.; as, a natural gesture, tone, etc.

cloudlike, self-luminous mass of matter situated beyond the solar system among the stars. True nebulæ are gaseous; but very distant star clusters often appear like them in the telescope.

To prove unreal or intrue; to disprove. The omission or infrequency of such recitals does not negative the existence of miracles. Paley.

The modern, or true, Crustacea, as distinguished from the Merostomata.

idow have children or nephews [Rev. Ver. grandchildren,]. 1 Tim. v. 4. If naturalists say true that nephews are often liker to their grandfathers than to their fathers. Jer. Taylor.

are examples. Formerly, the name was given to a much more extensive group, including the true Neuroptera and the Pseudoneuroptera.

oth corrupt. Matt. vi. 20. I love him not, nor fear him. Shak. Where neither party is nor true, nor kind. Shak. Simois nor Xanthus shall be wanting there. Dryden.

the four cardinal points of the compass, at any place, which lies in the direction of the true meridian, and to the left hand of a person facing the east; the direction opposite to the south.

Generally known and talked of by the public; universally believed to be true; manifest to the world; evident; -- usually in an unfavorable sense; as, a notorious thief; a notorious crime or vice. Your goodness, Since you provoke me, shall be most notorious. Shak.

Morbid and uncontrollable sexual desire in women, constituting a true disease.

; to hold by a constraining motive. "Obligated by a sense of duty." Proudfit. That's your true plan -- to obligate The present ministers of state. Churchill.

An extinct Eocene bird having the jaws strongly serrated, or dentated, but destitute of true teeth. It was found near London.