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masks, and amusing themselves with dancing, conversation, or other diversions. In courtly balls and midnight masquerades. Pope.

The broken stone used in macadamizing roads and ballasting railroads.

A rifle adapted to minie balls.

A false stroke with a billiard cue, the cue slipping from the ball struck without impelling it as desired.

A balloon which ascends by the buoyancy of air heated by a fire; a fire balloon; -- so called from two brothers, Stephen and Joseph Montgolfier, of France, who first constructed and sent up a fire balloon.

A weapon consisting of a heavy ball set with spikes, either attached to a staff or suspended from one by a chain. -- Morning watch (Naut.), the watch between four A. M. and eight A. M..

A ball or globe forming part of the regalia of an emperor or other sovereign. It is encircled with bands, enriched with precious stones, and surmounted with a cross; -- called also globe.

A failure to hold a ball when once in the hands.

The basket suspended from a balloon; hence, the framework forming the body of a dirigible balloon, and containing the machinery, passengers, etc.

A measure of length, being two inches and a quarter, or the sixteenth of a yard. Nail ball (Ordnance), a round projectile with an iron bolt protruding to prevent it from turning in the gun. -- Nail plate, iron in plates from which cut nails are made. -- On the nail, in hand; on the spot; immediately; without delay or…

Shak. Aërial navigation, the act or art of sailing or floating in the air, as by means of ballons; aëronautic. -- Inland navigation, Internal navigation, navigation on rivers, inland lakes, etc.

A little cloud; a cloud. [Obs.] O light without nebule. Old Ballad.

A kind of golf stick used to lift the ball out of holes, ruts, etc.

ner angle, or beneath the lower lid, of the eye, and capable of being drawn across the eyeball; the third eyelid; the haw.

A game in which nine holes are made in the ground, into which a ball is bowled.

A game played with nine pins, or pieces of wood, set on end, at which a wooden ball is bowled to knock them down; bowling.

To caress; to fondle, as a nurse does. A. Trollope. To nurse billiard balls, to strike them gently and so as to keep them in good position during a series of caroms.

A rapid involuntary oscillation of the eyeballs.

of the body, or to the associated muscles; -- applied especially to two muscles of the eyeball. -- Oblique narration. See Oblique speech. -- Oblique planes (Dialing), planes which decline from the zenith, or incline toward the horizon. -- Oblique sailing (Naut.), the movement of a ship when she sails upon some rhumb…

r off the bed; two miles off the shore. Addison. Off hand. See Offhand. -- Off side (Football), out of play; -- said when a player has got in front of the ball in a scrimmage, or when the ball has been last touched by one of his own side behind him. -- To be off color, to be of a wrong color. -- To be off one's food…