Search the Dictionary

Earth in general, as representing the elementary particles of the human body; hence, the human body as formed from such particles. I also am formed out of the clay. Job xxxiii. 6. The earth is covered thick with other clay, Which her own clay shall cover. Byron. Bowlder clay. See under Bowlder. -- Brick clay, the comm…

king noise, as by striking together, or against something. [Jove] clicked all his marble thumbs. Ben Jonson. When merry milkmaids click the latch. Tennyson.

A period in human life in which some great change is supposed to take place in the constitution. The critical periods are thought by some to be the years produced by multiplying 7 into the odd numbers 3, 5, 7, and 9; to which others add the 81st year.

To rhyme. [Humorous]. Cowper.

Covering for the human body; dress; vestments; vesture; -- a general term for whatever covering is worn, or is made to be worn, for decency or comfort. She . . . speaks well, and has excellent good clothes. Shak. If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. Mark. v. 28.

Suitable for membership in a club; sociable. [Humorous.] G. W. Curtis.

A fish; -- also called miller's thumb.

A chief man; a leader or master. [Humorous] Sir Andrew is the cock of the club, since he left us. Addison.

The change which the humorists believed morbific matter undergoes before elimination. [Obs.] Dunglison.

A singular or odd person; -- a familiar, humorous, or depreciatory appellation. [Colloq.] A few of us old codgers met at the fireside. Emerson.

The case in which a dead human body is inclosed for burial. They embalmed him [Joseph], and he was put in a coffin. Gen. 1. 26.

Col"or*a*bly, adv. Colorable and subtle crimes, that seldom are taken within the walk of human justice. Hooker.

The thumbpiece of the hammer of a gunlock, by which it may be cocked.

A downfall; an humillation. [Colloq.]

lic becomes powerful in proportion to the opulence and extensive commerce of private men. Hume.

eed that the Commons were no part of the great council till some ages after the Conquest. Hume.

resemblances or differences; relative estimate. As sharp legal practitioners, no class of human beings can bear comparison with them. Macaulay. The miracles of our Lord and those of the Old Testament afford many interesting points of comparison. Trench.

ched to the needles of a mariner's compass, on which are marked the thirty-two points or rhumbs. -- Compass dial, a small pocket compass fitted with a sundial to tell the hour of the day. -- Compass plane (Carp.), a plane, convex in the direction of its length on the under side, for smoothing the concave faces of cur…

se That which his noble ancestors achieved with blows. Shak. All government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and barter. Burke. An abhorrence of concession and compromise is a never failing characteristic of religious factions. Hallam.…

The act of stirring up, exciting, or agitating. [Obs.] "The concitation of humors." Sir T. Browne.