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up, let down, or drawn or turned aside, to admit or hinder communication at pleasure, as before the gate of a town or castle, or over a navigable river or canal.

To impel or urge onward by force in a direction away from one, or along before one; to push forward; to compel to move on; to communicate motion to; as, to drive cattle; to drive a nail; smoke drives persons from a room. A storm came on and drove them into Pylos. Jowett (Thucyd. ). Shield pressed on shield, and man dro…

ike. "The purple flowers droop." "Above her drooped a lamp." Tennyson. I saw him ten days before he died, and observed he began very much to droop and languish. Swift.

Hollandish chemists. See Ethylene, and Olefiant. -- Dutch oven, a tin screen for baking before an open fire or kitchen range; also, in the United States, a shallow iron kettle for baking, with a cover to hold burning coals. -- Dutch pink, chalk, or whiting dyed yellow, and used in distemper, and for paper staining.…

Something given, or a part paid beforehand, as a pledge; pledge; handsel; a token of what is to come. Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. 2 Cor. i. 22. And from his coffers Received the golden earnest of our death. Shak.

rom the earth to the moon, by which we see faintly, when the moon is near the sun (either before or after new moon), that part of the moon's disk unillumined by direct sunlight, or "the old moon in the arms of the new."

. Earthquake alarm, a bell signal constructed to operate on the theory that a few seconds before the occurrence of an earthquake the magnet temporarily loses its power.

ing leavened bread) and to infants as well as adults, permits its secular clergy to marry before ordination and to keep their wives afterward, but not to marry a second time, selects its bishops from the monastic clergy only, recognizes the offices of bishop, priest, and deacon as the three necessary degrees of orders,…

The elision of a final m, with the preceding vowel, before a word beginning with a vowel.

Born before another; prior in years; senior; earlier; older; as, his elder brother died in infancy; -- opposed to Ant: younger, and now commonly applied to a son, daughter, child, brother, etc. The elder shall serve the younger. Gen. xxv. 23. But ask of elder days, earth's vernal hour. Keble. Elder hand (Card Playing),…

Born or living first, or before the others, as a son, daughter, brother, etc.; first in origin. See Elder. "My lady's eldest son." Shak. Their eldest historians are of suspected credit. Bp. Stillingfleet. Eldest hand (Card Playing), the player on the dealer's left hand. R. A. Proctor.

for the sake of meter or euphony; esp., in poetry, the dropping of a final vowel standing before an initial vowel in the following word, when the two words are drawn together.

The young of an animal in the womb, or more specifically, before its parts are developed and it becomes a fetus (see Fetus).

, enforcing assent; as, to dwell on a subject with great emphasis. External objects stand before us . . . in all the life and emphasis of extension, figure, and color. Sir W. Hamilton.

en indifferently with en- or in-. For ease of pronunciation it is commonly changed to em- before p, b, and m, as in employ, embody, emmew. It is sometimes used to give a causal force, as in enable, enfeeble, to cause to be, or to make, able, or feeble; and sometimes merely gives an intensive force, as in enchasten. See…

To inflame with love; to charm; to captivate; -- with of, or with, before the person or thing; as, to be enamored with a lady; to be enamored of books or science. [Written also enamour.] Passionately enamored of this shadow of a dream. W. Irving.

To place in regular form before the court, usually in writing; to put upon record in proper from and order; as, to enter a writ, appearance, rule, or judgment. Burrill.

A prefix, meaning upon, beside, among, on the outside, above, over. It becomes ep- before a vowel, as in epoch, and eph- before a Greek aspirate, as in ephemeral.

An iron needle for piercing the cartridge of a cannon before priming.

An appearance, or a becoming manifest. Whom but just before they beheld transfigured and in a glorious epiphany upon the mount. Jer. Taylor. An epic poet, if ever such a difficult birth should make its epiphany in Paris. De Quincey.