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more favorable to these studies than the common avocations of women. Richardson. In a few hours, above thirty thousand men left his standard, and returned to their ordinary avocations. Macaulay. An irregularity and instability of purpose, which makes them choose the wandering avocations of a shepherd, rather than the m…

Oppressing with fear or horror; appalling; terrible; as, an awful scene. "The hour of Nature's awful throes." Hemans.

o give notice of anything in the streets. Formerly, also, a night watchman who called the hours. Milton.

by wailing; to lament; to wail over. Hath widowed and unchilded many a one, Which to this hour bewail the injury. Shak.

5 h. 48 m. 46 s.) above 365 days. But one day added every four years is equivalent to six hours each year, which is 11 m. 14 s. more than the excess of the real year. Hence, it is necessary to suppress the bissextile day at the end of every century which is not divisible by 400, while it is retained at the end of those…

o give anything a hard bite. I have known a very good fisher angle diligently four or six hours for a river carp, and not have a bite. Walton.

An exchange, or place where merchants, bankers, etc., meet for business at certain hours; esp., the Stock Exchange of Paris.

agments. The victim broke in pieces the musical instruments with which he had solaced the hours of captivity. Prescott.

or canonical prayers of the Roman Catholic or of the Greek Church for the seven canonical hours, namely, matins and lauds, the first, third, sixth, and ninth hours, vespers, and compline; -- distinguished from the missal.

e; to detain in conversation to weariness; to bore; as, he buttonholed me a quarter of an hour.

A private room in which consultations are held. Philip passed some hours every day in his father's cabinet. Prescott.

ndle of spermaceti so constructed as to burn at the rate of 120 grains, or 7.8 grams, per hour. -- To curse by bell, book and candle. See under Bell.

ges. -- Honorary canon, a canon who neither lived in a monastery, nor kept the canonical hours. -- Minor canon (Ch. of Eng.), one who has been admitted to a chapter, but has not yet received a prebend. -- Regular canon (R. C. Ch.), one who lived in a conventual community and follower the rule of St. Austin; a Black…

all functions of the same class can be reduced without lose of generality. -- Canonical hours, certain stated times of the day, fixed by ecclesiastical laws, and appropriated to the offices of prayer and devotion; also, certain portions of the Breviary, to be used at stated hours of the day. In England, this name is…

or pertaining to bondage or confinement; serving to confine; as, captive chains; captive hours.

on such a set of bells by hand, or produced by mechanism to accompany the striking of the hours or their divisions. We have heard the chimes at midnight. Shak.

To shoot out; to sprout. I have known barley chit in seven hours after it had been thrown forth. Mortimer.

Worthly of being chosen or preferred; select; superior; precious; valuable. My choicest hours of life are lost. Swift.

A machine for measuring time, indicating the hour and other divisions by means of hands moving on a dial plate. Its works are moved by a weight or a spring, and it is often so constructed as to tell the hour by the stroke of a hammer on a bell. It is not adapted, like the watch, to be carried on the person.…

antia) having a beautiful crest. -- Cock of the walk, a chief or master; the hero of the hour; one who has overcrowed, or got the better of, rivals or competitors. -- Cock of the woods. See Capercailzie.