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Any instrument or contrivance serving a purpose like that of a ship's anchor, as an arrangement of timber to hold a dam fast; a contrivance to hold the end of a bridge cable, or other similar part; a contrivance used by founders to hold the core of a mold in place.

Serving to annihilate; destructive.

Serving to assuage pain; soothing. The anodyne draught of oblivion. Burke.

Serving as an antidote. -- An`ti*dot"ic*al*ly, adv.

Counteracting, or preserving from, putrefaction; antiseptic.

Serving to open; aperient. Harvey.

Pertaining to a common name; serving as a distinctive denomination; denominative; naming. Cudworth.

The time an apprentice is serving (sometimes seven years, as from the age of fourteen to twenty-one).

ich support them, the spandrels above, and other necessary appurtenances; sometimes open, serving as an entrance or to give light; sometimes closed at the back (as in the cut) and forming a decorative feature.

An inhabitant of Albania and neighboring mountainous regions, specif. one serving as a soldier in the Turkish army.

A system of rules serving to facilitate the performance of certain actions; a system of principles and rules for attaining a desired end; method of doing well some special work; -- often contradistinguished from science or speculative principles; as, the art of building or engraving; the art of war; the art of navigati…

r in plants or animals. Not conversing the body, not repairing it by assimilation, but preserving it by ventilation. Sir T. Browne.

An instrument for observing or showing the positions of the stars. It is now disused.

The art or practice of foretelling events by observing the actions of birds, etc.; divination.

A divining or taking of omens by observing birds; an omen as to an undertaking, drawn from birds; an augury; an omen or sign in general; an indication as to the future.

A board serving as the back part of anything, as of a wagon.

Anything like , or serving the purpose of, a backbone. The lofty mountains on the north side compose the granitic axis, or backbone of the country. Darwin. We have now come to the backbone of our subject. Earle.

Anything behind, serving as a foil; as, the statue had a background of red hangings.

A line of palisades serving as an exterior defense. [Written also bayle.] [Obs.]

A row of balusters topped by a rail, serving as an open parapet, as along the edge of a balcony, terrace, bridge, staircase, or the eaves of a building.