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A genus of plants of the order Nyctoginaceæ, from tropical South America, having the flowers surrounded by large bracts.

Frivolous or sophistical objection. [Obs.] Hooker.

One of the fine granules contained in the protoplasm of a pollen grain.

Turned into, or reduced to, a village. [Obs.] W. Browne.

To exceed in villainy.

; extremely wicked, or sinning without restraint; irreclaimably wicked ; as, an abandoned villain.

in his wicked courses; to abet vice; to abet an insurrection. "The whole tribe abets the villany." South. Would not the fool abet the stealth, Who rashly thus exposed his wealth Gay.

absurd dream. This proffer is absurd and reasonless. Shak. 'This phrase absurd to call a villain great. Pope. p. 9

ly of training; -- commonly in a good sense; as, an accomplished scholar, an accomplished villain. They . . . show themselves accomplished bees. Holland. Daughter of God and man, accomplished Eve. Milton.

To feign or counterfeit; to simulate. With acted fear the villain thus pursued. Dryden. To act a part, to sustain the part of one of the characters in a play; hence, to simulate; to dissemble. -- To act the part of, to take the character of; to fulfill the duties of.

e skeleton of a man in full stature. Fuller. They brought one Pinch, a hungry, lean-faced villain, A mere anatomy. Shak.

he. The cuckoopint of the English is an example. Our common arums the lords and ladies of village children. Lubbock.

e part out of sight, or not generally seen; as, the back of an island, of a hill, or of a village.

A French school of the middle of the 19th century centering in the village of Barbizon near the forest of Fontainebleau. Its members went straight to nature in disregard of academic tradition, treating their subjects faithfully and with poetic feeling for color, light, and atmosphere. It is exemplified, esp. in landsca…

In Spain and countries colonized by Spain, a village, ward, or district outside a town or city to whose jurisdiction it belongs.

trociously wicked; cruel; mournful; calamitous; horrible. "This day's black fate." "Black villainy." "Arise, black vengeance." "Black day." "Black despair." Shak.

A villain, or tenant in villenage.

A slave; a villain; a serf; a bondman. Carnal, greedy people, without such a precept, would have no mercy upon their poor bondsmen. Derham.

rected by the sovereign, with a certain jurisdiction; in America, an incorporated town or village, as in Pennsylvania and Connecticut. Burrill. Erskine.

ely apart, they were advised, in 1643 and 1646, by the Dutch authorities, to gather into "villages, towns, and hamlets, as the English were in the habit of doing." Bancroft.