Search the Dictionary

called also blast orifice. -- In full blast, in complete operation; in a state of great activity. See Blast, n., 2. [Colloq.]

Without spirit or activity. Thou bloodless remnant of that royal blood ! Shak. -- Blood"less*ly, adv. -- Blood"less*ness, n.

he same little breviates of infidelity have . . . been published and dispersed with great activity. Bp. Porteus.

Full of liveliness and activity; characterized by quickness of motion or action; lively; spirited; quick. Cheerily, boys; be brick awhile. Shak. Brick toil alternating with ready ease. Wordworth.

Agitated; noisy; tumultuous; characterized by confused activity; as, a bustling crowd. "A bustling wharf." Hawthorne.

A medicine that promotes alvine discharges; a purge; a purgative of moderate activity.

To exhibit mental activity; to have the brain in action.

A supposed material or psychical agent or mode of activity other than a force, law, or purpose; fortune; fate; -- in this sense often personifed. It is strictly and philosophically true in nature and reason that there is no such thing as chance or accident; it being evident that these words do not signify anything real…

nds; chemical attaction; affinity; -- sometimes used as a general expression for chemical activity or relationship.

A pricking; stimulation. [Obs.] That acid piecering spirit which, with such activity and compunction, invadeth the brains and nostrils. Sir T. Browne.

A condition of lowered functional activity, without visible structural change, produced in an organ by a shock, as by fall or blow; as, a concussion of the brain.

To deprive of strength, activity, or capability for service or use; to disable; to deprive of resources; as, to be financially crippled. More serious embarrassments . . . were crippling the energy of the settlement in the Bay. Palfrey. An incumbrance which would permanently cripple the body politic. Macaulay.…

To make as dead; to impair in vigor, force, activity, or sensation; to lessen the force or acuteness of; to blunt; as, to deaden the natural powers or feelings; to deaden a sound.

The state of being destitute of life, vigor, spirit, activity, etc.; dullness; inertness; languor; coldness; vapidness; indifference; as, the deadness of a limb, a body, or a tree; the deadness of an eye; deadness of the affections; the deadness of beer or cider; deadness to the world, and the like.…

A putting off or deferring; procrastination; lingering inactivity; stop; detention; hindrance. Without any delay, on the morrow I sat on the judgment seat. Acts xxv. 17. The government ought to be settled without the delay of a day. Macaulay.

To lessen the activity of; to make dull; embarrass, as trade, commerce, etc.

Diminution, as of trade, etc.; inactivity; dullness.

shing the capacity for movement, as depressomotor nerves, which lower or inhibit muscular activity. -- n.

resses or tends to draw down a part. Depressor nerve (Physiol.), a nerve which lowers the activity of an organ; as, the depressor nerve of the heart.

Readiness and grace in physical activity; skill and ease in using the hands; expertness in manual acts; as, dexterity with the chisel. In youth quick bearing and dexterity. Shak.