Search the Dictionary

A halo, actual or figurative. The glorious aureole of light seen around the sun during total eclipses. Proctor. The aureole of young womanhood. O. W. Holmes.

To cease to sleep; to come out of a state of natural sleep; and, figuratively, out of a state resembling sleep, as inaction or death. The national spirit again awoke. Freeman. Awake to righteousness, and sin not. 1 Cor. xv. 34.

Rousing from sleep, in a natural or a figurative sense; rousing into activity; exciting; as, the awakening city; an awakening discourse; the awakening dawn. -- A*wak"en*ing*ly, adv.

To cover with dung, as for manuring; to bedaub or defile, literally or figuratively. Bp. Hall.

A hive for a swarm of bees. Also used figuratively.

instead of adducing the proof or sustaining the point by argument. -- To go a-begging, a figurative phrase to express the absence of demand for something which elsewhere brings a price; as, grapes are so plentiful there that they go a-begging.

To pommel; to beat, as with a stick; figuratively, to assail or criticise in conversation, or in writing. Thackeray.

Great with young; pregnant; swelling; ready to give birth or produce; -- often figuratively. [Day] big with the fate of Cato and of Rome. Addison.

To cause sharp pain, or smarting, to; to hurt or injure, in a literal or a figurative sense; as, pepper bites the mouth. "Frosts do bite the meads." Shak.

The quality or state of being bitter, sharp, or acrid, in either a literal or figurative sense; implacableness; resentfulness; severity; keenness of reproach or sarcasm; deep distress, grief, or vexation of mind. The lip that curls with bitterness. Percival. I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. Job vii. 11.…

A wash that blackens, as opposed to whitewash; hence, figuratively, calumny. To remove as far as he can the modern layers of black wash, and let the man himself, fair or foul, be seen. C. Kingsley.

Figuratively, of persons and things not religiously sacred, but held in high honor: To calumniate; to revile; to abuse. You do blaspheme the good in mocking me. Shak. Those who from our labors heap their board, Blaspheme their feeder and forget their lord. Pope.

Figuratively, of things held in high honor: Calumny; abuse; vilification. Punished for his blasphemy against learning. Bacon.

To make somewhat sore or watery, as the eyes; to dim, or blur, as the sight. Figuratively: To obscure (mental or moral perception); to blind; to hoodwink. That tickling rheums Should ever tease the lungs and blear the sight. Cowper. To blear the eye of, to deceive; to impose upon. [Obs.] Chaucer.

To make blind, literally or figuratively; to dazzle; to deceive. [Obs.] Chaucer.

State or condition of being blind, literally or figuratively. Darwin. Color blindness, inability to distinguish certain color. See Daltonism.

to cancel; to efface; -- generally with out; as, to blot out a word or a sentence. Often figuratively; as, to blot out offenses. One act like this blots out a thousand crimes. Dryden.

der land, land on the frontiers of two adjoining countries; debatable land; -- often used figuratively; as, the border land of science. -- The Border, The Borders, specifically, the frontier districts of Scotland and England which lie adjacent. -- Over the border, across the boundary line or frontier.…

That upon which anything rests or is founded, in a literal or a figurative sense; foundation; groundwork.

To exercise powerful or controlling influence over; to bend, figuratively; to turn; to incline. Adversities do more bow men's minds to religion. Bacon. Not to bow and bias their opinions. Fuller.