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A total prohibition of intercourse with, use of, or approach to, a given person or thing under pain of death, -- an interdict of religious origin and authority, formerly common in the islands of Polynesia; interdiction. [Written also tabu.]

eak ground, and cover themselves from the fire of the place, in advancing the lines of approach. -- Tail spindle, the spindle of the tailstock of a turning lathe; -- called also dead spindle. -- To turn tail, to run away; to flee. Would she turn tail to the heron, and fly quite out another way; but all was to return…

or female; a prattler; a babbler; also, a boaster; a braggart; -- used in contempt or reproach. Jer. Taylor.

To broach or enter upon; to taste, as a liquor; to divide; to distribute; to deal out. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.] In the time of famine he is the Joseph of the country, and keeps the poor from starving. Then he tameth his stacks of corn, which not his covetousness, but providence, hath reserved for time of need. Fuller.…

A punishment like that of Tantalus; a teasing or tormenting by the hope or near approach of good which is not attainable; tantalization. Addison. Is not such a provision like tantalism to this people Josiah Quincy.

udinally so as to have cutting edges. On tap. (a) Ready to be drawn; as, ale on tap. (b) Broached, or furnished with a tap; as, a barrel on tap. -- Plug tap (Mech.), a screw-cutting tap with a slightly tapering end. -- Tap bolt, a bolt with a head on one end and a thread on the other end, to be screwed into some fixe…

To reproach with severe or insulting words; to revile; to upbraid; to jeer at; to flout. When I had at my pleasure taunted her. Shak.

Heat of mind or passion; irritation; proneness to anger; -- in a reproachful sense. [Colloq.]

uired at the end of a body's motion. (b) The limit toward which the velocity of a body approaches, as of a body falling through the air.

Open attestation; profession. [Thou] for the testimony of truth, hast borne Universal reproach. Milton.

To exhibit the appearance of (something evil or unpleasant) as approaching; to indicate as impending; to announce the conditional infliction of; as, to threaten war; to threaten death. Milton. The skies look grimly And threaten present blusters. Shak.

an two; two and one. "I offer thee three things." 2 Sam. xxiv. 12. Three solemn aisles approach the shrine. Keble.

e of an association of robbers and murderers in India who practiced murder by stealthy approaches, and from religious motives. They have been nearly exterminated by the British government.

tant wave at the same place. Its length varies as the components of sun and moon waves approach to, or recede from, one another. A retardation from this cause is called the lagging of the tide, while the acceleration of the recurrence of high water is termed the priming of the tide. See Lag of the tide, under 2d Lag.…

The preposition to primarily indicates approach and arrival, motion made in the direction of a place or thing and attaining it, access; and also, motion or tendency without arrival; movement toward; -- opposed to Ant: from. "To Canterbury they wend." Chaucer. Stay with us, go not to Wittenberg. Shak. So to the sylvan l…

n by the ancient Romans, consisting of a single broad piece of woolen cloth of a shape approaching a semicircle. It was of undyed wool, except the border of the toga prætexta. Toga prætexta. Etym: [L.], a toga with a broad purple border, worn by children of both sexes, by magistrates, and by persons engaged in sacred r…

A livid spot upon the body, indicating, or supposed to indicate, the approach of death. [Obs.] Like the fearful tokens of the plague, Are mere forerunners of their ends. Beau. & Fl.

A person used as an instrument by another person; -- a word of reproach; as, men of intrigue have their tools, by whose agency they accomplish their purposes. I was not made for a minion or a tool. Burks.

or strive with all the tempest in my teeth." Pope. -- To cast in the teeth, to report reproachfully; to taunt or insult one with. -- Tooth and nail, as if by biting and scratching; with one's utmost power; by all possible means. L'Estrange. "I shall fight tooth and nail for international copyright." Charles Reade. -…

ntels. It is often minutely carved with symbolic sculpture, and serves as a monumental approach to a Buddhist temple.