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lightly over, as wind; -- commonly with off. As wicked dew as e'er my mother brushed With raven's feather from unwholesome fen. Shak. And from the boughts brush off the evil dew. Milton. To brush aside, to remove from one's way, as with a brush. -- To brush away, to remove, as with a brush or brushing motion. -- To b…

Flesh-devouring; cruel; ravenous; bloody. [Obs.] This carnal cur Preys on the issue of his mother's body. Shak. Carnal knowledge, sexual intercourse; -- used especially of an unlawful act on the part of the man.

To cry like a crow, rook, or raven. Rising and cawing at the gun's report. Shak.

To contravene; to nullify; as, to circumduct acts of judicature. [Obs.] Ayliffe.

e share of a common charge or expense; to pay for something by contribution. The owl, the raven, and the bat, Clubbed for a feather to his hat. Swift.

The raven. [Scot.]

nd have become the emblem of gluttony. They are generally black, and hence are called sea ravens, and coalgeese. [Written also corvorant.]

Ravenous; voracious. Cormorant, devouring time. Shak.

To make a low, hoarse noise in the throat, as a frog, a raven, or a crow; hence, to make any hoarse, dismal sound. Loud thunder to its bottom shook the bog, And the hoarse nation croaked. Pope.

To utter inarticulate sounds, as animals. The young ravens which cry. Ps. cxlvii. 9. In a cowslip's bell I lie There I couch when owls do cry. Shak. To cry on or upon, to call upon the name of; to beseech."No longer on Saint Denis will we cry." Shak. -- To cry out. (a) To exclaim; to vociferate; to scream; to clamor.…

t Lord Cranstone deigned she greet. Sir W. Scott. Round turned he, as not deigning Those craven ranks to see. Macaulay.

To eat up with greediness; to consume ravenously; to feast upon like a wild beast or a glutton; to prey upon. Some evil beast hath devoured him. Gen. xxxvii. 20.

transgression; offense. [R.] Then my digression is so vile, so base, That it will live engraven in my face. Shak.

A piece of music of a mournful character, to accompany funeral rites; a funeral hymn. The raven croaked, and hollow shrieks of owls Sung dirges at her funeral. Ford.

To do an act which contravenes the will or desires of; to offend by an act of unkindness or incivility; to displease; to refrain from obliging; to be unaccommodating to. Those . . . who slight and disoblige their friends, shall infallibly come to know the value of them by having none when they shall most need them. Sou…

ence, by whispered insinuations or private talk. "No longer was he earwigged by the Lord Cravens." Lord Campbell.

Greediness; voracity; ravenousness; rapacity. Bacon.

a decree or a law; also, reflexively, to enlist. An unwritten law of common right, so engraven in the hearts of our ancestors, and by them so constantly enjoyed and claimed, as that it needed not enrolling. Milton. All the citizen capable of bearing arms enrolled themselves. Prescott.

A viceroy; in Ravenna, the title of the viceroys of the Byzantine emperors; in the Eastern Church, the superior over several monasteries; in the modern Greek Church, a deputy of the patriarch , who visits the clergy, investigates ecclesiastical cases, etc.

The quality or state of being exchangeable. The law ought not be contravened by an express article admitting the exchangeability of such persons. Washington.