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oning, puzzled inquirers after truth, weakened the faith of the people, and drew upon themselves general hatred and contempt. Many of the Sophists doubdtless card not for truth or morality, and merely professed to teach how to make the worse appear the better reason; but there scems no reason to hold that they were a s…

scourse, or harangue; to adress a public assembly formally. Many of the nobility made themselves popular by speaking in Parliament against those things which were most grateful to his majesty. Clarendon.

o amuse; to make merry; -- used with the reciprocal pronoun. Against whom do ye sport yourselves Isa. lvii. 4.

, spurring hard to Westminster. Macaulay. Some bold men, . . . by spurring on, refine themselves. Grew.

I disdain and spurn. Shak. Domestics will pay a more cheerful service when they find themselves not spurned because fortune has laid them at their master's feet. Locke.

tanding pattern of their imitation." South. The king granted the Jews . . . to gather themselves together, and to stand for their life. Esther viii. 11.

lities. The minds of some of our statesmen, like the pupil of the human eye, contract themselves the more, the stronger light there is shed upon them. More.

eflexive); hence, to creep furtively, or to insinuate. They could insinuate and steal themselves under the same by their humble carriage and submission. Spenser. He will steal himself into a man's favor. Shak.

turned into stepping-stones. Macaulay. That men may rise on stepping-stones Of their dead selves to higher things. Tennyson.

h out flames. Spenser. The Lydians were inhibited by Cyrus to use any armor, and give themselves to baths and stews. Abp. Abbot.

o quench; as, to stifle the breath; to stifle a fire or flame. Bodies . . . stifle in themselves the rays which they do not reflect or transmit. Sir I. Newton.

taining the holy water with which those who enter, dipping their fingers in it, cross themselves; -- called also holy-water stoup.

so laid that the joints form a continued line transverse to the length of the boards themselves. Brandle & C.

ority. Let noble Warwick, Cobham, and the rest, . . . With powerful policy strengthen themselves. Shak.

stretched to the eastward. Ham. Nav. Encyc. Stretch out, an order to rowers to extend themselves forward in dipping the oar.

take of the blood, and strike it on the two sideposts. Ex. xii. 7. Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow. Byron.

A hypothetical component of a chemical atom, on the theory that the elements themselves are complex substances; -- called also atomicule.

The granting of lands by inferior lords to their dependents, to be held by themselves by feudal tenure. Craig.

e philosophers of mind have, in a manner, usurped and appropriated this expression to themselves. Accordingly, in their hands, the phrases conscious or thinking subject, and subject, mean precisely the same thing. Sir W. Hamilton.

eturn to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands. Gen. xvi. 9. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands. Eph. v. 22.