Search the Dictionary

A ditch on the outside of the counterscarp, usually full of water.

A rope to steady the peak of a gaff.

Benne (Sesamum orientale); also, its seeds; -- so called in the West Indies.

The troops who march in front of an army; the advance guard; the van.

The long podlike capsules of Vanilla planifolia, and V. claviculata, remarkable for their delicate and agreeable odor, for the volatile, odoriferous oil extracted from them; also, the flavoring extract made from the capsules, extensively used in confectionery, perfumery, etc.

A salt of vanillic acid.

Pertaining to, or derived from, vanilla or vanillin; resembling vanillin; specifically, designating an alcohol and an acid respectively, vanillin being the intermediate aldehyde.

A white crystalline aldehyde having a burning taste and characteristic odor of vanilla. It is extracted from vanilla pods, and is also obtained by the decomposition of coniferin, and by the oxidation of eugenol.

An inferior kind of vanilla, the pods of Vanilla Pompona.

The hypothetical radical characteristic of vanillic alcohol.

Vain or foolish talk. [Obs.]

rom a visible to an invisible state; to go out of sight; to disappear; to fade; as, vapor vanishes from the sight by being dissipated; a ship vanishes from the sight of spectators on land. The horse vanished . . . out of sight. Chaucer. Go; vanish into air; away! Shak. The champions vanished from their posts with the s…

a. & n. from Vanish, v. Vanishing fraction (Math.), a fraction which reduces to the form Math. Dict. -- Vanishing line (Persp.), the intersection of the parallel of any original plane and picture; one of the lines converging to the vanishing point. -- Vanishing point (Persp.), the point to which all parallel lines in…

A vanishing. [Obs.]

; want of substance to satisfy desire; emptiness; unsubstantialness; unrealness; falsity. Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. Eccl. i. 2. Here I may well show the vanity of that which is reported in the story of Walsingham. Sir J. Davies.

A small box, usually jeweled or of precious metal and worn on a chain, containing a mirror, powder puff, and other small toilet articles for a woman.

The Australian pied crow shrike (Strepera graculina). It is glossy bluish black, with the under tail coverts and the tips and bases of the tail feathers white.

A machine for concentrating ore. See Frue vanner.

The kestrel. [Prov. Eng.]

A process by which ores are washed on a shovel, or in a vanner.