Search the Dictionary

and D. irroratus), related to the cassowary and the ostrich. The emu runs swiftly, but is unable to fly. [Written also emeu and emew.]

To become unable to meet one's engagements; especially, to be unable to pay one's debts or discharge one's business obligation; to become bankrupt or insolvent.

Failure to serve the ball into the proper court. At fault, unable to find the scent and continue chase; hance, in trouble ot embarrassment, and unable to proceed; puzzled; thhrown off the track. -- To find fault, to find reason for blaming or complaining; to express dissatisfaction; to complain; -- followed by with be…

Destitute of help or strength; unable to help or defend one's self; needing help; feeble; weak; as, a helpless infant. How shall I then your helpless fame defend Pope.

Unable to perceive. The imperceptive part of the soul. Dr. H. More.

Wanting the power of procreation; unable to copulate; also, sometimes, sterile; barren.

-- To be in for it. (a) To be in favor of a thing; to be committed to a course. (b) To be unable to escape from a danger, penalty, etc. [Colloq.] -- To be (or keep) in with. (a) To be close or near; as, to keep a ship in with the land. (b) To be on terms of friendship, familiarity, or intimacy with; to secure and retai…

The quality or state of being unable; lack of ability; want of sufficient power, strength, resources, or capacity. It is not from an inability to discover what they ought to do, that men err in practice. Blair.

ing in adequate strength, power, capacity, means, qualifications, or the like; incapable; unable; inadequate; unfit. Incompetent to perform the duties of the place. Macaulay.

Unable to restrain natural evacuations.

Unskilled; unready; awkward; incompetent; unqualified; -- said of person. [Obs.] See Unable.

solvent; the state or condition of a person who is insolvent; the condition of one who is unable to pay his debts as they fall due, or in the usual course of trade and business; as, a merchant's insolvency.

Not solvent; not having sufficient estate to pay one's debts; unable to pay one's debts as they fall due, in the ordinary course of trade and business; as, in insolvent debtor.

ins. -- To knock up. (a) To arouse by knocking. (b) To beat or tire out; to fatigue till unable to do more; as, the men were entirely knocked up. [Colloq.] "The day being exceedingly hot, the want of food had knocked up my followers." Petherick. (c) (Bookbinding) To make even at the edges, or to shape into book form,…

Having wandered from, or unable to find, the way; bewildered; perplexed; as, a child lost in the woods; a stranger lost in London.

s, to make out the meaning of a letter. (b) To prove; to establish; as, the plaintiff was unable to make out his case. (c) To make complete or exact; as, he was not able to make out the money. -- To make over, to transfer the title of; to convey; to alienate; as, he made over his estate in trust or in fee. -- To make…

n it has superseded the civil authority in time of war, or when the civil authorities are unable to enforce the laws. It is distinguished from military law, the latter being the code of rules for the regulation of the army and navy alone, either in peace or in war.

One who, from deafness, either congenital or from early life, is unable to use articulate language; a deaf-mute.

Having neither acid nor basic properties; unable to turn red litmus blue or blue litmus red; -- said of certain salts or other compounds. Contrasted with Ant: acid, and Ant: alkaline. Neutral axis, Neutral surface (Mech.), that line or plane, in a beam under transverse pressure, at which the fibers are neither stretche…

An exception taken against a plaintiff in a cause, when he is unable legally to commence a suit.