Search the Dictionary

The act of domesticating, or accustoming to home; the action of taming wild animals.

Sleeping; as, a dormant animal; hence, not in action or exercise; quiescent; at rest; in abeyance; not disclosed, asserted, or insisted on; as, dormant passions; dormant claims or titles. It is by lying dormant a long time, or being . . . very rarely exercised, that arbitrary power steals upon a people. Burke.…

Pertaining to, or situated near, the back, or dorsum, of an animal or of one of its parts; notal; tergal; neural; as, the dorsal fin of a fish; the dorsal artery of the tongue; -- opposed to ventral.

From the dorsal to the ventral side of an animal; as, the dorsoventral axis.

The back or dorsal region of an animal; the upper side of an appendage or part; as, the dorsum of the tongue.

Fine, soft, hairy outgrowth from the skin or surface of animals or plants, not matted and fleecy like wool; esp.:

A fabulous animal, generally represented as a monstrous winged serpent or lizard, with a crested head and enormous claws, and regarded as very powerful and ferocious. The dragons which appear in early paintings and sculptures are invariably representations of a winged crocodile. Fairholt.

. (b) A dredging machine. (c) An iron frame, with a fine net attached, used in collecting animals living at the bottom of the sea.

r any use; to render suitable for an intended purpose; to get ready; as, to dress a slain animal; to dress meat; to dress leather or cloth; to dress or trim a lamp; to dress a garden; to dress a horse, by currying and rubbing; to dress grain, by cleansing it; in mining and metallurgy, to dress ores, by sorting and sepa…

by carriage; to pass in a carriage; to proceed by directing or urging on a vehicle or the animals that draw it; as, the coachman drove to my door.

ause they move about in vast armies, and drive away or devour all insects and other small animals.

To hang bending downward; to sink or hang down, as an animal, plant, etc., from physical inability or exhaustion, want of nourishment, or the like. "The purple flowers droop." "Above her drooped a lamp." Tennyson. I saw him ten days before he died, and observed he began very much to droop and languish. Swift.…

That which falls in drops; the excrement or dung of animals. Dropping bottle, an instrument used to supply small quantities of a fluid to a test tube or other vessel. -- Dropping fire, a continued irregular discharge of firearms. -- Dropping tube, a tube for ejecting any liquid in drops.

A collection of cattle driven, or cattle collected for driving; a number of animals, as oxen, sheep, or swine, driven in a body.

Any animal, vegetable, or mineral substance used in the composition of medicines; any stuff used in dyeing or in chemical operations. Whence merchants bring Their spicy drugs. Milton.

Of animals: Not giving milk; as, the cow is dry.

One of the vessels of an animal body by which the products of glandular secretion are conveyed to their destination.

emonies. They are communistic, opposed to any violence, and unwilling to use the labor of animals. Driven out of Russia proper, many have emigrated to Cyprus and Canada. See Raskolnik, below.

umb chill, a form of intermittent fever which has no well-defined "chill." [U.S.] -- Dumb animal, any animal except man; -- usually restricted to a domestic quadruped; -- so called in contradistinction to man, who is a "speaking animal." -- Dumb cake, a cake made in silence by girls on St. Mark's eve, with certain myst…

The excrement of an animal. Bacon.