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rak`er, to designate one so engaged, were speedily coined and obtained wide currency. The original allusion was to a character in Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" so intent on raking up muck that he could not see a celestial crown held above him.

A sort of strong beer, originally made in Brunswick, Germany. Addison. The clamorous crowd is hushed with mugs of mum. Pope.

A species of firearm formerly carried by the infantry of an army. It was originally fired by means of a match, or matchlock, for which several mechanical appliances (including the flintlock, and finally the percussion lock) were successively substituted. This arm has been generally superseded by the rifle.…

A story of great but unknown age which originally embodied a belief regarding some fact or phenomenon of experience, and in which often the forces of nature and of the soul are personified; an ancient legend of a god, a hero, the origin of a race, etc.; a wonder story of prehistoric origin; a popular fable which is, or…

A species of cloth, of a firm texture, originally brought from China, made of a species of cotton (Gossypium religiosum) that is naturally of a brownish yellow color quite indestructible and permanent.

Original; constituting the original substance of anything; as, native dust. Milton.

By natural or original condition; naturally; originally.

ion of harmony which moves by easy and smooth transitions, digressing but little from the original key. Moore (Encyc. of Music). Natural day, the space of twenty-four hours. Chaucer. -- Natural fats, Natural gas, etc. See under Fat, Gas. etc. -- Natural Harmony (Mus.), the harmony of the triad or common chord. -- Na…

Originally, a laborer on canals for internal navigation; hence, a laborer on other public works, as in building railroads, embankments, etc. [Eng.]

estrain a person from leaving the country, or the jurisdiction of the court. The writ was originally applicable to purposes of state, but is now an ordinary process of courts of equity, resorted to for the purpose of obtaining bail, or security to abide a decree. Kent.

to anything followed or imitated; not free, loose, or rambling; as, a version near to the original.

others. As formed by Laplace, it supposed the matter of the solar system to have existed originally in the form of a vast, diffused, revolving nebula, which, gradually cooling and contracting, threw off, in obedience to mechanical and physical laws, succesive rings of matter, from which subsequently, by the same laws,…

rtaining to a picture upon glass or other material, in which the lights and shades of the original, and the relations of right and left, are reversed.

teid matter. It was for a long time considered identical with choline, a crystalline body originally obtained from bile. Chemically, however, choline is oxyethyl-trimethyl-ammonium hydroxide, while neurine is vinyl-trimethyl-ammonium hydroxide. [Written also neurin.]

As if lately begun or made; having the state or quality of original freshness; also, changed for the better; renovated; unworn; untried; unspent; as, rest and travel made him a new man. Steadfasty purposing to lead a new life. Bk. of Com. Prayer. Men after long emaciating diets, fat, and almost new. Bacon.…

In German mythology, the children of the mist, a race of dwarfs or demonic beings, the original possessors of the famous hoard and ring won by Siegfrid; also, the Burgundian kings in the Nibelungenlied.

A cactaceous plant (Nopalea cochinellifera), originally Mexican, on which the cochineal insect feeds, and from which it is collected. The name is sometimes given to other species of Cactaceæ.

Standard; original; exact; typical. Specifically:

A native or inhabitant of Normandy; originally, one of the Northmen or Scandinavians who conquered Normandy in the 10th century; afterwards, one of the mixed (Norman-French) race which conquered England, under William the Conqueror.

l text of what is to be said; as, to preach from notes; also, a reporter's memoranda; the original report of a speech or of proceedings.