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Having the chief power; ruling; predominant; prevalent. "A traitor to the vices regnant." Swift.

Prevailing; prevalent; abounding. Before the plague of London, inflammations of the lungs were rife and mortal. Arbuthnot. Even now the tumult of loud mirth Was rife, and perfect in may listening ear. Milton.

d range of food, which is incapable of repairing the waste of the system. It was formerly prevalent among sailors and soldiers. Scurvy grass Etym: [Scurvy + grass; or cf. Icel. skarfakal scurvy grass.] (Bot.) A kind of cress (Cochlearia officinalis) growing along the seacoast of Northern Europe and in arctic regions. I…

ecutive in development or transition of thought. The scheme of pantheistic omniscience so prevalent among the sequacious thinkers of the day. Sir W. Hamilton. Milton was not an extensive or discursive thinker, as Shakespeare was; for the motions of his mind were slow, solemn, and sequacious, like those of the planets.…

t sucking the blood of persons asleep, thus causing their death. This superstition is now prevalent in parts of Eastern Europe, and was especially current in Hungary about the year 1730. The persons who turn vampires are generally wizards, witches, suicides, and persons who have come to a violent end, or have been curs…

and sorcery, said to include human sacrifices and cannibalism in some of its rites. It is prevalent among the negroes of Hayti, and to some extent in the United States, and is regarded as a relic of African barbarism.

Not prevalent or effective, or not felt to be prevalent; not potent; feeble. "Weak prayers." Shak.