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To contend, contest, or altercate, esp. in a pertinacious manner on insufficient grounds. Fortune, as she 's wont, turned fickle, And for the foe began to stickle. Hudibras. While for paltry punk they roar and stickle. Dryden. The obstinacy with which he stickles for the wrong. Hazlitt.

Applied to spokes when they are arranged alternately in two circles in the hub. See Straddle, v. i., and Straddle, v. t., 3. Knight.

"He is sick of a strange fever." Shak. Sated at length, erelong I might perceive Strange alteration in me. Milton.

Altercation; violent contention; fight; battle. Twenty of them fought in this black strife. Shak. These vows, thus granted, raised a strife above Betwixt the god of war and queen of love. Dryden.

A pattern produced by arranging the warp threads in sets of alternating colors, or in sets presenting some other contrast of appearance.

Well established; firm; not easily overthrown or altered; as, a strong custom; a strong belief.

A subordinate; a subaltern. [Colloq.]

moisture; to suffer loss or damage. If your more ponderous and settled project May suffer alteration. Shak.

knew That what before she but surmised, was true. Dryden. This change was not wrought by altering the form or position of the earth, as was surmised by a very learned man, but by dissolving it. Woodward.

To view with a scrutinizing eye; to examine. With such altered looks, . . . All pale and speechless, he surveyed me round. Dryden.

hange, affection, or influence; readily acted upon; as, a body susceptible of color or of alteration. It sheds on souls susceptible of light, The glorious dawn of our eternal day. Young.

To climb a tree, pole, or the like, by embracing it with the arms and legs alternately. See Shin. [Colloq.] At the top was placed a piece of money, as a prize for those who could swarm up and seize it. W. Coxe.

e insurmountable are passed. The track ascends by a series of zigzags, the engine running alternately forward and back, until the summit is reached. -- Switch board (Elec.), a collection of switches in one piece of apparatus, so arranged that a number of circuits may be connected or combined in any desired manner. --…

The act of syncopating; a peculiar figure of rhythm, or rhythmical alteration, which consists in welding into one tone the second half of one beat with the first half of the beat which follows.

Capable of, or taking place by, alternate contraction and dilatation; as, the systaltic action of the heart.

To insert, as one piece of timber into another, by alternate scores or projections from the middle, to prevent slipping; to scarf.

The letting of one timber into another by alternate scores or projections, as in shipbuilding.

To meddle so as to alter, injure, or vitiate a thing.

To soil, or change the appearance of, especially by an alternation induced by the air, or by dust, or the like; to diminish, dull, or destroy the luster of; to sully; as, to tarnish a metal; to tarnish gilding; to tarnish the purity of color. "Tarnished lace." Fuller. Used also figuratively; as, to tarnish one's honor.…

strument for producing music (Tel*har"mo*ny []), at a distant point or points by means of alternating currents of electricity controlled by an operator who plays on a keyboard. The music is produced by a receiving instrument similar or analogous to the telephone, but not held to the ear. The pitch corresponds with freq…