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A linen (or sometimes cotton) fabric, finer and lighter than canvas, -- used for the lighter sails of vessels, the sacking of beds, and sometimes for men's clothing.

cloth, having a thick nap or frieze. [Written also duffle.] Good duffel gray and flannel fine. Wordsworth.

Deaf-mute. -- Dumb ague, or Dumb 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.…

Fine, dry particles of earth or other matter, so comminuted that they may be raised and wafted by the wind; that which is crumbled too minute portions; fine powder; as, clouds of dust; bone dust. Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. Gen. iii. 19. Stop! -- for thy tread is on an empire's dust. Byron.…

Gross; low; unrefined. "Her earthy and abhorred commands." Shak.

A hard, heavy, and durable wood, which admits of a fine polish or gloss. The usual color is black, but it also occurs red or green.

t the commencement of segmentation, in a peripheral position, and the cleavage process confined to the center of the egg; as, ectolecithal ova.

A Dutch pressed cheese of yellow color and fine flavor, made in balls weighing three or four pounds, and usually colored crimson outside; -- so called from the village of Edam, near Amsterdam. Also, cheese of the same type, wherever made.

Having some of the forms, such as drapery or the like, too sharply defined. "An edgy style of sculpture." Hazlitt.

issima, which breeds in the northern parts of Europe and America, and lines its nest with fine down (taken from its own body) which is an article of commerce; -- called also eider duck. The American eider (S. Dresseri), the king eider (S. spectabilis), and the spectacled eider (Arctonetta Fischeri) are related species.…

A solid hydrocarbon, C20H42, of the paraffine series, of artificial production, and also probably occurring in petroleum.

To perfect with painstaking; to improve or refine with labor and study, or by successive operations; as, to elaborate a painting or a literary work. The sap is . . . still more elaborated and exalted as it circulates through the vessels of the plant. Arbuthnot.

t or process of producing or refining with labor; improvement by successive operations; refinement.

mplete absence of what deforms or impresses unpleasantly; grace given by art or practice; fine polish; refinement; -- said of manners, language, style, form, architecture, etc. That grace that elegance affords. Drayton. The endearing elegance of female friendship. Johnson. A trait of native elegance, seldom seen in the…

Very choice, and hence, pleasing to good taste; characterized by grace, propriety, and refinement, and the absence of every thing offensive; exciting admiration and approbation by symmetry, completeness, freedom from blemish, and the like; graceful; tasteful and highly attractive; as, elegant manners; elegant style of…

The refined spirit; the quintessence. The . . . elixir of worldly delights. South.

The process of elutriating; a decanting or racking off by means of water, as finer particles from heavier.

To throw up a bank so as to confine or to defend; to protect by a bank of earth or stone.

To decorate; to make showy and fine. [Obs.] And with sad cypress seemly it embraves. Spenser.

To ornament with needlework; as, to embroider a scarf. Thou shalt embroider the coat of fine linen. Ex. xxviii. 39.