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A chicken just breaking the shell; a young bird.

An implement for pounding and breaking or braying substances in a mortar.

cal case of metal filled with powder and attached to a plank, to be exploded against and break down gates, barricades, drawbridges, etc. It has been superseded.

Capriciously fretful; characterized by ill-natured freakishness; irritable. "Petulant moods." Macaulay.

Money paid at fairs for leave to break ground for booths. Ainsworth.

The act of digging or breaking up, as with a pick.

t or part of anything separated from the whole, in any manner, as by cutting, splitting, breaking, or tearing; a part; a portion; as, a piece of sugar; to break in pieces. Bring it out piece by piece. Ezek. xxiv. 6.

) A small American falcon (Falco columbarius). The adult male is dark slate-blue above, streaked with black on the back; beneath, whitish or buff, streaked with brown. The tail is banded. (b) The American sharp-shinned hawk (Accipiter velox, or fuscus). -- Pigeon hole. (a) A hole for pigeons to enter a pigeon house. (…

To peel; to make by removing the skin. [Jacob] pilled white streaks . . . in the rods. Gen. xxx. 37.

The act of pounding or breaking in a mortar; pestillation. [Obs.] Sir T. Browne.

Capable of plying or bending; readily yielding to force or pressure without breaking; flexible; pliable; lithe; limber; plastic; as, a pliant thread; pliant wax. Also used figuratively: Easily influenced for good or evil; tractable; as, a pliant heart. The will was then ductile and pliant to right reason. South.…

r power, for turning up the soil to prepare it for bearing crops; also used to furrow or break up the soil for other purposes; as, the subsoil plow; the draining plow. Where fern succeeds ungrateful to the plow. Dryden.

To cook, as eggs, by breaking them into boiling water; also, to cook with butter after breaking in a vessel. Bacon.

A cup that was supposed to break on having poison put into it.

A contrivance to prevent an animal from leaping or breaking through fences. It consists of a yoke with a pole inserted, pointed forward. [U.S.] Poke bonnet, a bonnet with a straight, projecting front.

To make a noise; to pop; also, to break wind.

pe and America; -- called also China, or China ware. Porcelain, by being pure, is apt to break. Dryden. Ivory porcelain, porcelain with a surface like ivory, produced by depolishing. See Depolishing. -- Porcelain clay. See under Clay. -- Porcelain crab (Zoöl.), any crab of the genus Porcellana and allied genera (fami…

To comminute and pulverize by beating; to bruise or break into fine particles with a pestle or other heavy instrument; as, to pound spice or salt.

The breaking of a public pound for releasing impounded animals. Blackstone.

The act of beating, bruising, or breaking up; a beating.