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A period in human life in which some great change is supposed to take place in the constitution. The critical periods are thought by some to be the years produced by multiplying 7 into the odd numbers 3, 5, 7, and 9; to which others add the 81st year.

The highest point; the greatest degree. We must look higher for the climax of earthly good. I. Taylor. To cap the climax, to surpass everything, as in excellence or in absurdity. [Colloq.]

d brass." Milton. "Clods of blood." E. Fairfax. The earth that casteth up from the plow a great clod, is not so good as that which casteth up a smaller clod. Bacon.

A great crowd or multitude; a vast collection. "So great a cloud of witnesses." Heb. xii. 1.

A number of things of the same kind growing together; a bunch. Her deeds were like great clusters of ripe grapes, Which load the bunches of the fruitful vine. Spenser.

To burn to charcoal; to char. [R.] Charcoal of roots, coaled into great pieces. Bacon.

tles of many species. They and their larvæ feed on aphids or plant lice, and hence are of great benefit to man. Also called ladybirds and ladybugs.

lictolophus, or Cacatua, cristatus), the sulphur-crested (P. galeritus), etc. The palm or great black cockatoo of Australia is Microglossus aterrimus. Cock"a*trice, n. Etym: [OF. cocatrice crocodile, F. cocatrix, cocatrice. The word is a corruption from the same source as E. crocodile, but was confused with cock the bi…

Th treat with too great tenderness; to fondle; to indulge; to pamper. Cocker thy child and he shall make thee afraid. Ecclesiasticus xxx. 9. Poor folks cannot afford to cocker themselves up. J. Ingelow.

spoilt child. "A young heir or cockney, that is his mother's darling." Nash (1592). This great lubber, the world, will prove a cockney. Shak.

onella), which in the larval state (known as the apple worm) lives in apples, often doing great damage to the crop.

o extend to the same degree. According to which the least body may be coextended with the greatest. Boyle. Has your English language one single word that is coextended through all these significations Bentley.

nce; agreement. The very concurrence and coincidence of ao many evidences . . . carries a great weight. Sir M. Hale. Those who discourse . . . of the nature of truth . . . affirm a perfect coincidence between truth and goodness. South.

n, the quantity of brawn bound up in one parcel. [Eng.] Johnson. -- Collar day, a day of great ceremony at the English court, when persons, who are dignitaries of honorary orders, wear the collars of those orders. -- To slip the collar, to get free; to disentangle one's self from difficulty, labor, or engagement. Spe…

icer appointed and commissioned to collect and receive customs, duties, taxes, or toll. A great part of this is now embezzled . . . by collectors, and other officers. Sir W. Temple.

One of two great circles intersecting at right angles in the poles of the equator. One of them passes through the equinoctial points, and hence is denominated the equinoctial colure; the other intersects the equator at the distance of 90º from the former, and is called the solstitial colure. Thrice the equinoctial line…

An engagement of no great magnitude; or one in which the parties engaged are not armies. Single combat, one in which a single combatant meets a single opponent, as in the case of David and Goliath; also a duel.

Violent agitation; confusion; tumult. [Obs.] There [were] great combustions and divisions among the heads of the university. Mede. But say from whence this new combustion springs. Dryden.

) To pass out or depart, as from a country, room, company, etc. "They shall come out with great substance." Gen. xv.

ongated orbit, approaching very near to the sun in its perihelion, and receding to a very great distance from it at its aphelion. A comet commonly consists of three parts: the nucleus, the envelope, or coma, and the tail; but one or more of these parts is frequently wanting. See Illustration in Appendix.…