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A public institution for lending money to the poor at a moderate interest, upon articles deposited and pledged; -- called also mont de piété.

A group of birds characterized by having long slender bills, as the sandpipers, curlews, and ibises. It is now regarded as an artificial division.

A kind of crystallite having a (slender) acicular form.

A perennial herb (Phryma Leptostachya), having slender seedlike fruits.

Any one of several species of small lemurs of the genus Stenops. They have long, slender limbs and large eyes, and are arboreal in their habits. The slender loris (S. gracilis), of Ceylon, in one of the best known species. [Written also lori.]

Shining; bright; resplendent. " The sun's lucent orb." Milton.

Shining; bright; resplendent; as, the lucid orbs of heaven. Lucid, like a glowworm. Sir I. Newton. A court compact of lucid marbles. Tennyson.

A genus of free-swimming macruran Crustacea, having a slender body and long appendages.

sun and moon. -- Lunisolar year, a period of time, at the end of which, in the Julian calendar, the new and full moons and the eclipses recur on the same days of the week and month and year as in the previous period. It consists of 532 common years, being the least common multiple of the numbers of years in the cycle…

Brilliancy; splendor; brightness; glitter. The right mark and very true luster of the diamond. Sir T. More. The scorching sun was mounted high, In all its luster, to the noonday sky. Addison.

Long slender tubes made of a paste chiefly of wheat flour, and used as an article of food; Italian or Genoese paste.

-- Magnetic iron, or Magnetic iron ore. (Min.) Same as Magnetite. -- Magnetic needle, a slender bar of steel, magnetized and suspended at its center on a sharp-pointed pivot, or by a delicate fiber, so that it may take freely the direction of the magnetic meridian. It constitutes the essential part of a compass, such…

Grand; splendid; illustrious; magnificent. [Obs.] 1 Chron. xxii. 5. "Thy magnific deeds." Milton. -- Mag*nif"ic*al*ly, adv. [Obs.]

Grand in appearance; exhibiting grandeur or splendor; splendid' pompous. When Rome's exalted beauties I descry Magnificent in piles of ruin lie. Addison.

A fern of the genus Adiantum (A. pedatum), having very slender graceful stalks. It is common in the United States, and is sometimes used in medicine. The name is also applied to other species of the same genus, as to the Venus-hair. Maiden grass, the smaller quaking grass. -- Maiden tree. See Ginkgo.…

A scurfy eruption in the bend of the knee of the fore leg of a horse. See Sallenders. [Written also mallenders.]

Any species of marine annelids of the genus Maldane, or family Maldanidæ. They have a slender, round body, and make tubes in the sand or mud.

, a fish of the Ganges (Polynemus risua), highly esteemed for food. It has several long, slender filaments below the pectoral fins. It appears about the same time with the mango fruit, in April and May, whence the name. -- Mango tree (Bot.), an East Indian tree of the genus Mangifera (M. Indica), related to the cashew…

thopterous insects of the genus Mantis, and allied genera. They are remarkable for their slender grotesque forms, and for holding their stout anterior legs in a manner suggesting hands folded in prayer. The common American species is M. Carolina. Mantis shrimp. (Zoöl.) See Sguilla.

Varied with irregular markings, or witch a confused blending of irregular spots and streaks.