Search the Dictionary

Ravishment; rape; constupration. To do violence on, to attack; to murder. "She . . . did violence on herself." Shak. -- To do violence to, to outrage; to injure; as, he does violence to his own opinions.

forcible; vehement; impetuous; fierce; furious; severe; as, a violent blow; the violent attack of a disease. Float upon a wild and violent sea. Shak. A violent cross wind from either coast. Milton.

To attack or beat with a waddy.

To make war; to invade or attack a state or nation with force of arms; to carry on hostilities; to be in a state by violence. Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war against it. Isa. vii. 1. Why should I war without the walls of Troy Shak. Our countrymen w…

on. Schoolcraft. On the warpath, on a hostile expedition; hence, colloquially, about to attack a person or measure.

h case, made of paper cut in some fanciful design, as a vase with flowers, etc. -- Watch tackle (Naut.), a small, handy purchase, consisting of a tailed double block, and a single block with a hook.

To cause to go about, as a vessel, by putting the helm up, instead of alee as in tacking, so that the vessel's bow is turned away from, and her stern is presented to, the wind, and, as she turns still farther, her sails fill on the other side; to veer.

er. (b) Fig.: A position of advantage or superiority; advantage in position. To veer, and tack, and steer a cause Against the weather gauge of laws. Hudibras. -- Weather helm (Naut.), a tendency on the part of a sailing vessel to come up into the wind, rendering it necessary to put the helm up, that is, toward the weat…

A sudden illness or relapse, often attended with fever, which attacks women in childbed. [Scot.]

A small nematode worm (Anguillula tritici) which attacks the grains of wheat in the ear. It is found in wheat affected with smut, each of the diseased grains containing a large number of the minute young of the worm.

A small tackle with a single rope, used to hoist light bodies.

One who raises coal or merchandise with a tackle from a chip's hold. [Eng.]

ing engine. -- Winding sheet, a sheet in which a corpse is wound or wrapped. -- Winding tackle (Naut.), a tackle consisting of a fixed triple block, and a double or triple movable block, used for hoisting heavy articles in or out of a vessel. Totten.

Witches' besoms (Bot.), tufted and distorted branches of the silver fir, caused by the attack of some fungus. Maunder (Treas. of Bot.) -- Witches' butter (Bot.), a name of several gelatinous cryptogamous plants, as Nostoc commune, and Exidia glandulosa. See Nostoc. -- Witch grass (Bot.), a kind of grass (Panicum capi…

against; to oppose; to resist, either with physical or moral force; as, to withstand an attack of troops; to withstand eloquence or arguments. Piers Plowman. I withstood him to the face. Gal. ii. 11. Some village Hampden, that, with dauntless breast. The little tyrant of his fields withstood. Gray.

ccidentalis), and the prairie wolf, or coyote. Wolves often hunt in packs, and may thus attack large animals and even man.

To harass by pursuit and barking; to attack repeatedly; also, to tear or mangle with the teeth. A hellhound that doth hunt us all to death; That dog that had his teeth before his eyes, To worry lambs and lap their gentle blood. Shak.

yeoman; becoming or suitable to, a yeoman; yeomanlike. B. Jonson. Well could he dress his tackle yeomanly. Chaucer.