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A rapid dance in six-eight time in which a large number join hands and dance in various figures, sometimes moving from room to room. It originated in Provence.

make according to the rule prescribed by custom. Fashioned plate sells for more than its weight. Locke.

The lightest weight that can be put on the back of a horse in racing. Youatt. (c) In wrestling, boxing, etc., a term applied to the lightest of the classes into which contestants are divided; -- in contradistinction to light weight, middle weight, and heavy weight. A feather in the cap an honour, trophy, or mark of dis…

en introduced into the Roman calendar by Numa. In common years this month contains twenty-eight days; in the bissextile, or leap year, it has twenty- nine days.

A franchise or right to maintain a vessel for carrying passengers and freight across a river, bay, etc., charging tolls. Ferry bridge, a ferryboat adapted in its structure for the transfer of railroad trains across a river or bay. -- Ferry railway. See under Railway.

r, a measure in domestic use in the United States, of about four and a half inches or one eighth of a yard. A piece of steel three fingers thick. Bp. Wilkins.

he lower part. (b) A balloon sent up at night with fireworks which ignite at a regulated height. Simmonds. -- Fire bar, a grate bar. -- Fire basket, a portable grate; a cresset. Knight. -- Fire beetle. (Zoöl.) See in the Vocabulary. -- Fire blast, a disease of plants which causes them to appear as if burnt by fire.…

ficer in a company; the orderly sergeant. Farrow. -- First watch (Naut.), the watch from eight to twelve at midnight; also, the men on duty during that time. -- First water, the highest quality or purest luster; -- said of gems, especially of diamond and pearls.

Yielding to the touch, and easily moved or shaken; hanging loose by its own weight; wanting firmness; flaccid; as, flabby flesh.

akes or layers; flakelike. What showers of mortal hail, what flaky fires! Watts. A flaky weight of winter's purest snows. Wordsworth.

A boat with a flat bottom and square ends; -- used for the transportation of bulky freight, especially in shallow waters.

The small distortion of an astronomical instrument caused by the weight of its parts; the amount to be added or substracted from the observed readings of the instrument to correct them for this distortion. The flexure of a curve (Math.), the bending of a curve towards or from a straight line.

Anything which floats or rests on the surface of a fluid, as to sustain weight, or to indicate the height of the surface, or mark the place of, something. Specifically:

A float for indicating the height of a liquid surface.

The eight month of the French republican calendar. It began April 20, and ended May 19. See Vendémiare.

was not isolated until 1886. It is a pungent, corrosive, colorless gas. Symbol F. Atomic weight 19.

An instrument for measuring the height of water in a river; a river gauge.

A heavy wheel, or cross arms with weights at the ends on a revolving axis, to regulate or equalize the motion of machinery by means of its inertia, where the power communicated, or the resistance to be overcome, is variable, as in the steam engine or the coining press. See Fly wheel (below).

A weight by which lead and some other metals were formerly sold, in England, varying from 19 [Obs.]

equal to the work done in raising one pound avoirdupois against the force of gravity the height of one foot.