Search the Dictionary

the ground or field inclosed for a race or combat. Chaucer. In measured lists to toss the weighty lance. Pope. To enter the lists, to accept a challenge, or engage in contest.

or exertion;little effort; little care or diligence. By sad experiment I know How little weight my words with thee can find. Milton.

t which is laid on or put in anything for conveyance; that which is borne or sustained; a weight; as, a heavy load. He might such a load To town with his ass carry. Gower.

A weight or block near the free end of a hoisting rope to prevent it from being drawn through the sheave. Log board (Naut.), a board consisting of two parts shutting together like a book, with columns in which are entered the direction of the wind, course of the ship, etc., during each hour of the day and night. These…

To let descend by its own weight, as something suspended; to let down; as, to lower a bucket into a well; to lower a sail or a boat; sometimes, to pull down; as, to lower a flag. Lowered softly with a threefold cord of love Down to a silent grave. Tennyson.

A spurious coin of light weight imported into England from Luxemburg, or Lussheburgh, as it was formerly called. [Obs.] God wot, no Lussheburghes payen ye. Chaucer.

An East Indian coin, of about one tenth of the weight of a rupee.

A money of account in China equal to one tenth of a tael; also, a weight of 57.98 grains. S. W. Williams.

social machine. The whole machine of government ought not to bear upon the people with a weight so heavy and oppressive. Landor.

Its compounds occur abundantly, as in dolomite, talc, meerschaum, etc. Symbol Mg. Atomic weight, 24.4. Specific gravity, 1.75. Magnesium sulphate. (Chem.) Same as Epsom salts.

Anything of which greater or less can be predicated, as time, weight, force, and the like.

force Warwick did win. Shak. -- By main strength, by sheer strength; as, to lift a heavy weight by main strength. -- Main beam (Steam Engine), working beam. -- Main boom (Naut.), the boom which extends the foot of the mainsail in a fore and aft vessel. -- Main brace. (a) (Mech.) The brace which resists the chief st…

computation; to ascertain by enumeration; to find the number or amount of, by reckoning, weighing, measurement, and the like; as, he made the distance of; to travel over; as, the ship makes ten knots an hour; he made the distance in one day.

A Hebrew weight for gold or silver, being one hundred shekels of gold and sixty shekels of silver. Ezek. xlv. 12.

occur abundantly in nature as the minerals pyrolusite, manganite, etc. Symbol Mn. Atomic weight 54.8.

A weight of various commodities, esp. of gold and silver, used in different European countries. In France and Holland it was equal to eight ounces.

An old weight and coin. See Marc. "Lend me a mark." Chaucer.

Forming, or consisting of, a large mass; compacted; weighty; heavy; massy. "Massive armor." Dr. H. More.

Compacted into, or consisting of, a mass; having bulk and weight ot substance; ponderous; bulky and heavy; weight; heavy; as, a massy shield; a massy rock. Your swords are now too massy for your strengths, And will not be uplifted. Shak. Yawning rocks in massy fragments fly. Pope.

Of solid or weighty character; not insubstantial; of cinsequence; not be dispensed with; important. Discourse, which was always material, never trifling. Evelyn. I shall, in the account of simple ideas, set down only such as are most material to our present purpose. Locke.