Search the Dictionary

A shift or turn from the point in question; a trifling or evasive distinction; an evasion; a cavil. Quibbles have no place in the search after truth. I. Watts.

Triflingly; evasively.

A sudden turn; a starting from the point or line; hence, an artful evasion or subterfuge; a shift; a quibble; as, the quirks of a pettifogger. "Some quirk or . . . evasion." Spenser. We ground the justification of our nonconformity on dark subtilties and intricate quirks. Barrow.

A sail, or any piece of canvas. [Nautical Slang] Our ship was a clipper with every rag set. Lowell. Rag bolt, an iron pin with barbs on its shank to retain it in place. -- Rag carpet, a carpet of which the weft consists of narrow of cloth sewed together, end to end. -- Rag dust, fine particles of ground-up rags, used…

stile or predatory incursion; an inroad or incursion of mounted men; a sudden and rapid invasion by a cavalry force; a foray. Marauding chief! his sole delight. The moonlight raid, the morning fight. Sir W. Scott. There are permanent conquests, temporary occupation, and occasional raids. H. Spenser.…

Desolation by violence; violent ruin or destruction; devastation; havoc; waste; as, the ravage of a lion; the ravages of fire or tempest; the ravages of an army, or of time. Would one think 't were possible for love To make such ravage in a noble soul Addison.

To absorb again; to draw in, or imbibe, again what has been effused, extravasated, or thrown off; to swallow up again; as, to reabsorb chyle, lymph, etc.; -- used esp. of fluids.

That which serves, or is used, fro receiving and containing something, as a basket, a vase, a bag, a reservoir; a repository. O sacred receptacle of my joys! Shak.

ty of, with a person or thing previously known; to recover or recall knowledge of. Speak, vassal; recognize thy sovereign queen. Harte.

an duck (Aythya Americana) highly esteemed as a game bird. It is closely allied to the canvasback, but is smaller and its head brighter red. Called also red-headed duck. American poachard, grayback, and fall duck. See Illust. under Poachard.

A piece of canvas sewed across a sail to strengthen it in the part where the eyelet holes for reefing are made. Totten.

e force of the exploding powder. See Illust. of Cannon. (b) An additional thickness of canvas, cloth, or the like, around an eyelet, buttonhole, etc.

imagination; to make a copy of; as, to reproduce a person's features in marble, or on canvas; to reproduce a design.

A shelf behind the altar, for display of lights, vases of wlowers, etc.

An inroad; an invasion; a raid. [Obs.] Spenser.

Old, condemned canvas, rope, etc., unfit for use except in chafing gear. [Written also rumbowline.]

case the tiller or the wheel is broken. -- Rudder coat (Naut.), a covering of tarred canvas used to prevent water from entering the rudderhole. -- Rudder fish. (Zoöl.) (a) The pilot fish. (b) The amber fish (Seriola zonata), which is bluish having six broad black bands. (c) A plain greenish black American fish (Leir…

amed of looking down on others as beneath him, merely because he was conscious of his own vast superiority to the common run of men. Prof. Wilson. His whole appearance was something out of the common run. W. Irving. -- To let go by the run (Naut.), to loosen and let run freely, as lines; to let fall without restraint,…

the pillage or plunder, as of a town or city; the storm and plunder of a town; devastation; ravage. The town was stormed, and delivered up to sack, -- by which phrase is to be understood the perpetration of all those outrages which the ruthless code of war allowed, in that age, on the persons and property of the defens…

A low irregular shrub (Artemisia tridentata), of the order Compositæ, covering vast tracts of the dry alkaline regions of the American plains; -- called also sagebush, and wild sage.