Search the Dictionary

Literally, the letters of a word read backwards, but in its usual wider sense, the change or one word or phrase into another by the transposition of its letters. Thus Galenus becomes angelus; William Noy (attorney-general to Charles I., and a laborious man) may be turned into I moyl in law.

A variety of the lever escapement with a wide impulse pin.

A widely used system of electric night signals in which a series of double electric lamps (white and red) is arranged vertically on a mast, and operated from a keyboard below.

Extent; scope; range; as, a wide area of thought. The largest area of human history and man's common nature. F. Harrison. Dry area. See under Dry.

With one leg on each side, as a man when on horseback; with the legs stretched wide apart; astraddle. Placed astride upon the bars of the palisade. Sir W. Scott. Glasses with horn bows sat astride on his nose. Longfellow.

rent pieces or places. I took my staff, even Beauty, and cut it asunder. Zech. xi. 10. As wide asunder as pole and pole. Froude.

The European bison (Bison bonasus, or Europæus), once widely distributed, but now nearly extinct, except where protected in the Lithuanian forests, and perhaps in the Caucasus. It is distinct from the Urus of Cæsar, with which it has often been confused.

a state of vigilance or action. Before whom awake I stood. Milton. She still beheld, Now wide awake, the vision of her sleep. Keats. He was awake to the danger. Froude.

lle Axminster.] A variety of Turkey carpet, woven by machine or, when more than 27 inches wide, on a hand loom, and consisting of strips of worsted chenille so colored as to produce a pattern on a stout jute backing. It has a fine soft pile. So called from Axminster, England, where it was formerly (1755 -- 1835) made.…

re destitute of chlorophyll, and are the smallest of microscopic organisms. They are very widely diffused in nature, and multiply with marvelous rapidity, both by fission and by spores. Certain species are active agents in fermentation, while others appear to be the cause of certain infectious diseases. See Bacillus.…

Plates or blades of "whalebone," from two to twelve feet long, and sometimes a foot wide, which in certain whales (Balænoidea) are attached side by side along the upper jaw, and form a fringelike sieve by which the food is retained in the mouth.

f being banished. He secured himself by the banishment of his enemies. Johnson. Round the wide world in banishment we roam. Dryden.

amphibians which includes the frogs and toads; the Anura. Sometimes the word is used in a wider sense as equivalent to Amphibia.

A piece of linen about 1 ft. 8 in. wide by 213 ft. long, covered with embroidery representing the incidents of William the Conqueror's expedition to England, preserved in the town museum of Bayeux in Normandy. It is probably of the 11th century, and is attributed by tradition to Matilda, the Conqueror's wife.…

A large drinking cup, with a wide mouth, supported on a foot or standard.

The widest part of a vessel below the plank-sheer. (c) pl.

n; to cast forth; to emit; to give vent to; to vent. Within the gates that now Stood open wide, belching outrageous flame. Milton.

Having the shape of a widemouthed bell; campanulate.

for pasture in the Southern United States. It is a native of Southern Europe, but is now wide-spread in warm countries; -- called also scutch grass, and in Bermuda, devil grass.

ck next below the lower gun deck. Ham. Nav. Encyc. -- To give (the land or any object) a wide berth, to keep at a distance from it.