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A slender elastic rod, as of whalebone, with a sponge on the end, for removing obstructions from the esophagus, etc.

In the construction of fieldworks, the erection at proper intervals of wooden profiles, to show to the workmen the sectional form of the parapets at those points.

Of, pertaining to, or conveying, preliminary instruction; introductory to any art or science; instructing beforehand.

The preliminary learning connected with any art or science; preparatory instruction.

Public interpretation of Scripture; preaching; exhortation or instruction.

To give instruction in religious matters; to interpret or explain Scripture or religious subjects; to preach; to exhort; to expound. Ezek. xxxvii. 7.

To doom to destruction; to put out of the protection of law; to outlaw; to exile; as, Sylla and Marius proscribed each other's adherents. Robert Vere, Earl of Oxford, . . . was banished the realm, and proscribed. Spenser.

of sacred Hindoo poetical works in the Sanskrit language which treat of the creation, destruction, and renovation of worlds, the genealogy and achievements of gods and heroes, the reigns of the Manus, and the transactions of their descendants. The principal Puranas are eighteen in number, and there are the same number…

To run swiftly round, as a small stream flowing among stones or other obstructions; to eddy; also, to make a murmuring sound, as water does in running over or through obstructions. Swift o'er the rolling pebbles, down the hills, Louder and louder purl the falling rills. Pope.

In root construction, a horizontal member supported on the principals and supporting the common rafters.

The motion of a small stream running among obstructions; also, the murmur it makes in so doing.

To attach or attribute; to assign; as, to put a wrong construction on an act or expression.

A wreck; destruction. [Obs., except in a few phrases.] Rack and ruin, destruction; utter ruin. [Colloq.] -- To go to rack, to perish; to be destroyed. [Colloq.] "All goes to rack." Pepys.

To ravage; to prevail without restraint, or with destruction or fatal effect; as, the plague raged in Cairo.

The so-called "Twilight of the Gods" (called in German Götterdämmerung), the final destruction of the world in the great conflict between the Æsir (gods) on the one hand, and on the other, the gaints and the powers of Hel under the leadership of Loki (who is escaped from bondage).

(a) A device attached to the front of a locomotive on each side for clearing the rail obstructions. (b) A guard rail. See under Guard. -- Rail joint (Railroad), a splice connecting the adjacent ends of rails, in distinction from a chair, which is merely a seat. The two devices are sometimes united. Among several hundr…

The construction of a railroad; the business of managing or operating a railroad. [Colloq. U. S.]

Any sloping member, other than a purely constructional one, such as a continuous parapet to a staircase.

A cyst formed under the tongue by obstruction of the duct of the submaxillary gland.

Desolation by violence; violent ruin or destruction; devastation; havoc; waste; as, the ravage of a lion; the ravages of fire or tempest; the ravages of an army, or of time. Would one think 't were possible for love To make such ravage in a noble soul Addison.