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The power of singing; a musical voice; -- so called, probably, from the connection of the voice with the lungs, which lie within the breast. [Obs.] By my troth, the fool has an excellent breast. Shak. Breast drill, a portable drilling machine, provided with a breastplate, for forcing the drill against the work. -- Bre…

A variety of dog, of remarkable ferocity, courage, and tenacity of grip; -- so named, probably, from being formerly employed in baiting bulls.

constitution and by-laws for the government of their members. In this sense the word has probably been influenced by by, meaning secondary or aside.

t from the Phoenicians. The English name of C is from the Latin name ce, and was derived, probably, through the French. Etymologically C is related to g, h, k, q, s (and other sibilant sounds). Examples of these relations are in L. acutus, E. acute, ague; E. acrid, eagar; L. cornu, E. horn; E. cat, kitten; E. coy, quie…

n letters. Cadmean victory, a victory that damages the victors as much as the vanquished; probably referring to the battle in which the soldiers who sprang from the dragon's teeth sown by Cadmus slew each other.

characterized by neuralgic pains and paralytic symptoms. It is variously explained, most probably as due to congestion of internal organs with subsequent stasis of the blood.

The root of a plant (Jateorrhiza Calumba, and probably Cocculus palmatus), indigenous in Mozambique. It has an unpleasantly bitter taste, and is used as a tonic and antiseptic. [Written also colombo, columbo, and calombo.] American calumba, the Frasera Carolinensis, also called American gentian. Its root has been used…

lling, like a wen, on the point of the elbow (or the heel of the hock) of a horse, caused probably by bruises in lying dowm.

rmine red (Chem.), a coloring matter obtained from carmine as a purple-red substance, and probably allied to the phthaleïns.

You grow cheap in every subject's eye. Dryden. Dog cheap, very cheap, -- a phrase formed probably by the catachrestical transposition of good cheap. [Colloq.]

, in scorpions and allied Arachnida. They are homologous with the falcers of spiders, and probably with the mandibles of insects.

ng sweetmeats and preserves. -- Citron tree (Bot.), the tree which bears citrons. It was probably a native of northern India, and is now understood to be the typical form of Citrus Medica.

Said of potash, probably in reference to its having been obtained from billets of wood by burning. [Obs.]

The center of the butt at which archers shoot; -- probably once a piece of white cloth or a nail head. A'must shoot nearer or he'll ne'er hit the clout. Shak.

One of a kind of minute, calcareous bodies, probably vegetable, often abundant in deep-sea mud.

nadium group, first found in a variety of the mineral columbite occurring in Connecticut, probably at Haddam. Atomic weight 94.2. Symbol Cb or Nb. Now more commonly called niobium.

ay in 1492 Christopher Columbus discovered America, landing on one of the Bahama Islands (probably the one now commonly called Watling Island), and naming it "San Salvador"; -- called also Discovery Day. This day is made a legal holiday in many States of The United States.

. Such fossils are supposed by some to be the teeth of marsipobranch fishes, but they are probably the jaws of annelids.

A yellow coal-tar dyestuff which probably consists chiefly of rosolic acid. See Aurin, and Rosolic acid under Rosolic. Red corallin, a red dyestuff which is obtained by treating aurin or rosolic acid with ammonia; -- called also pæonin. -- Yellow corallin. See Aurin.

An unidentified plant, probably the crowfoot. "The tufted crowtoe." Milton.