Search the Dictionary

Having a hard exterior, or a short, rough manner, though kind at heart; snappish; peevish; surly. Thou crusty batch of nature, what's the news Shak.

Having the qualities, or exhibiting the characteristics, of a cur; snarling; quarrelsome; snappish; churlish; hence, also malicious; malignant; brutal. Thy currish spirit Governed a wolf. Shak. Some currish plot, -- some trick. Lockhart. -- Cur"rish*ly, adv. -- Cur"rish*ness, n.

an acquaintance when meeting him; a slight. Rip called him by name, but the cur snarled, snapped his teeth, and passed on. This was an unkind cut indeed. W. Irving.

ng with a sudden and sparkling combustion, as niter; hence, slightly explosive; liable to snap and crackle when heated, as salt.

To burn with a sudden and sparkling combustion, as niter; also, to snap and crackle with slight explosions when heated, as salt.

iculation between the abdomen and thorax; -- called also click beetle, spring beetle, and snapping beetle.

A fig; an insignificant trifle, no more than the snap of one's thumb; a sign of contempt made by the fingers, expressing. A fig for you. Steal! foh, a fico for the phrase. Shak.

ced against the ball of the thumb, and forced from that position with a sudden spring; to snap with the finger. "You filip me o' the head." Shak.

n angling with a fly. -- Fly sheet, a small loose advertising sheet; a handbill. -- Fly snapper (Zoöl.), an American bird (Phainopepla nitens), allied to the chatterers and shrikes. The male is glossy blue-black; the female brownish gray. -- Fly wheel (Mach.), a heavy wheel attached to machinery to equalize the move…

Apt to break out into a passion; apt to scold; cross; snappish; ugly; unruly; as, a fractious man; a fractious horse.

The act of breaking or snapping asunder; rupture; breach.

flower. -- Gnat hawk (Zoöl.), the European goatsucker; -- called also gnat owl. -- Gnat snapper (Zoöl.), a bird that catches gnats. -- Gnat strainer, a person ostentatiously punctilious about trifles. Cf. Matt. xxiii. 24.

nd noted for its aptness in learning to talk. -- Gray pike. (Zoöl.) See Sauger. -- Gray snapper (Zoöl.), a Florida fish; the sea lawyer. See Snapper. -- Gray snipe (Zoöl.), the dowitcher in winter plumage. -- Gray whale (Zoöl.), a rather large and swift California whale (Rhachianectes glaucus), formerly taken in la…

od fishes of the genus Epinephelus, of the family Serranidæ, as the red grouper, or brown snapper (E. morio), and the black grouper, or warsaw (E. nigritus), both from Florida and the Gulf of Mexico.

Any one of several species of American food fishes, of the genus Hæmulon, allied to the snappers, as, the black grunt (A. Plumieri), and the redmouth grunt (H. aurolineatus), of the Southern United States; -- also applied to allied species of the genera Pomadasys, Orthopristis, and Pristopoma. Called also pigfish, squi…

, and scatter the seeds with considerable force. Called also touch-me-not, jewelweed, and snapweed. I. Balsamina (sometimes called lady's slipper) is the common garden balsam.

To strike smartly; to rap; to snap. Bacon.

Snappish; peevish. [Obs.] Grafton.

into two unequal parts, one projecting over the other like the lips of a mouth, as in the snapdragon, sage, and catnip.

Having labiate flowers, as the snapdragon.