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, or formality; -- said of style, manner, etc. With painful care, but seeming easiness. Roscommon.

m a better to a worse state; low state or condition; decline; decay. "Our ebb of life." Roscommon. Painting was then at its lowest ebb. Dryden. Ebb and flow, the alternate ebb and flood of the tide; often used figuratively. This alternation between unhealthy activity and depression, this ebb and flow of the industrial.…

rank; a flight of levity, or of gayety and mirth. He would be at his frolic once again. Roscommon.

e golden altar fumed. Milton. Silenus lay, Whose constant cups lay fuming to his brain. Roscommon.

ed bowls the gossip's spirits raise, Who, while she guzzles, chats the doctor's praise. Roscommon. To fat the guzzling hogs with floods of whey. Gay.

hence, much used; trite; mean; as, hackney coaches; hackney authors. "Hackney tongue." Roscommon.

l humor. Examine how your humor is inclined, And which the ruling passion of your mind. Roscommon. A prince of a pleasant humor. Bacon. I like not the humor of lying. Shak.

te; as, to impair health, character, the mind, value. Time sensibly all things impairs. Roscommon. In years he seemed, but not impaired by years. Pope.

To give inconvenience or trouble to; to disturb or molest; to discommode; to worry; to put out; as, we are incommoded by want of room.

uch strings jar, what hope of harmony Shak. A string may jar in the best master's hand. Roscommon.

2. To leave off, to cease; to desist; to stop. Leave off, and for another summons wait. Roscommon.

, fit, or suit (one thing to another). Let poets match their subject to their strength. Roscommon.

; excessively sentimental; weak and silly. "Maudlin eyes." Dryden. "Maudlin eloquence." Roscommon. "A maudlin poetess." Pope. "Maudlin crowd." Southey.

, rude; common; vulgar. To make a god, a hero, or a king Descend to a mechanic dialect. Roscommon. Sometimes he ply'd the strong, mechanic tool. Thomson.

Yielding milk. "Milky mothers." Roscommon.

igree." Shak. The time and care that are required To overlook and file and polish well. Roscommon.

Hence: Monstrous; prodigious; wonderful; dreadful; as, a beast of portentous size. Roscommon. -- Por*tent"ous*ly, adv. -- Por*tent"ous*ness, n.

were possessed with devils. Matt. iv. 24. For ten inspired, ten thousand are possessed. Roscommon.

dward's sword did print. Sir John Beaumont. Perhaps some footsteps printed in the clay. Roscommon.

al or vicious; dissolute; as, profligate man or wretch. A race more profligate than we. Roscommon. Made prostitute and profligate muse. Dryden.