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A former prison in London, which originally stood near a stream, the Fleet (now filled up). Fleet parson, a clergyman of low character, in, or in the vicinity of, the Fleet prison, who was ready to unite persons in marriage (called Fleet marriage) at any hour, without public notice, witnesses, or consent of parents.…

A massive, somewhat impure variety of quartz, in color usually of a gray to brown or nearly black, breaking with a conchoidal fracture and sharp edge. It is very hard, and strikes fire with steel.

A small lobe in the under surface of the cerebellum, near the middle peduncle; the subpeduncular lobe.

That part of the bottom of a vessel on each side of the keelson which is most nearly horizontal.

A fluoride of cerium, occuring near Fahlun in Sweden. Tynosite, from Colorado, is probably the same mineral.

-- Conjugate focus (Opt.), the focus for rays which have a sensible divergence, as from a near object; -- so called because the positions of the object and its image are interchangeable. -- Focus tube (Phys.), a vacuum tube for Roentgen rays in which the cathode rays are focused upon the anticathode, for intensifying…

rt of the atmosphere and disturbing its transparency. It differs from cloud only in being near the ground, and from mist in not approaching so nearly to fine rain. See Cloud.

A region of the ocean where fogs are of marked frequency, as near the coast of Newfoundland.

The half of a sword blade or foil blade nearest the point; -- opposed to forte. [Written also faible.]

n the point of attainment; defeat; frustration; miscarriage. Milton. Nor e'er was fate so near a foil. Dryden.

on, justification, or the like, of an action related or a statement made. It is logically nearly equivalent to since, or because, but connects less closely, and is sometimes used as a very general introduction to something suggested by what has gone before. Give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good; for his mercy endur…

Near; hard by; along; past. [Obs.] To tell her if her child went ought forby. Chaucer. To the intent that ships may pass along forby all the sides of the city without let. Robynson (More's Utopia).

en high and low water marks. -- Fore sight, that one of the two sights of a gun which is near the muzzle. -- Fore tackle (Naut.), the tackle on the foremast of a ship. -- Fore topmast. (Naut.) See Fore-topmast, in the Vocabulary. -- Fore wind, a favorable wind. [Obs.] Sailed on smooth seas, by fore winds borne. San…

Near; hard by; along; past. See Forby. Spenser.

n a bas-relief, mosaic picture, or the like, that part of the scene represented, which is nearest to the spectator, and therefore occupies the lowest part of the work of art itself. Cf. Distance, n., 6.

The mast nearest the bow. Foremast hand or man (Naut.), a common sailor; also, a man stationed to attend to the gear of the foremast.

To represent on a plane surface, as if extended in a direction toward the spectator or nearly so; to shorten by drawing in perspective.

Near the beginning; preceeding; as, the former part of a discourse or argument.

The stronger part of the blade of a sword; the part of half nearest the hilt; -- opposed to foible.

Near, or at the fore part; in advance of something else; as, the forward gun in a ship, or the forward ship in a fleet.