Search the Dictionary

or vulgar jester; grossly opprobrious or loudly jocose in language; scurrilous; as, scurrile taunts. The wretched affectation of scurrile laughter. Cowley. A scurrile or obscene jest will better advance you at the court of Charles than father's ancient name. Sir W. Scott.

A geographical mile. See Mile.

Capable of being cut; specifically (Min.), capable of being severed by the knife with a smooth cut; -- said of minerals.

The half of a lens divided along a plane passing through its axis.

Half lenticular or convex; imperfectly resembling a lens. Kirwan.

An aspect of the planets when distant from each other the half of a quadrant, or forty-five degrees, or one sign and a half. Hutton.

An aspect of the planets when distant from each other half of the quintile, or thirty-six degrees.

An aspect of the planets when they are distant from each other the twelfth part of a circle, or thirty degrees. Hutton.

ing from, or characteristic of, old age; affected with the infirmities of old age; as, senile weakness. "Senile maturity of judgment." Boyle. Senile gangrene (Med.), a form of gangrene occuring particularly in old people, and caused usually by insufficient blood supply due to degeneration of the walls of the smaller ar…

ding from dependence; hence, meanly submissive; slavish; mean; cringing; fawning; as, servile flattery; servile fear; servile obedience. She must bend the servile knee. Thomson. Fearing dying pays death servile breath. Shak.

In a servile manner; slavishly.

Quality of being servile; servility.

Resting directly upon the main stem or branch, without a petiole or footstalk; as, a sessile leaf or blossom.

Having eyes which are not elevated on a stalk; -- opposed to stalk-eyed. Sessile-eyed Crustacea, the Arthrostraca.

Measured by sixty degrees; fixed or indicated by a distance of sixty degrees. Glanvill.

The six-shafted bird of paradise. See Paradise bird, under Paradise.

To strain, as fresh milk. [Prov. Eng.]

The state of being silent; entire absence of sound or noise; absolute stillness. I saw and heared; for such a numerous host Fled not in silence through the frighted deep. Milton.

Any of various devices to silence the humming noise of telegraph wires.

A genus of caryophyllaceous plants, usually covered with a viscid secretion by which insects are caught; catchfly. Bon Silène. See Silène, in the Vocabulary.