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Any ground squirrel of the genus Spermophilus; gopher. See Illust. under Gopher.

A large stake driven into the ground as a support for some superstructure; a pile. Spile hole, a small air hole in a cask; a vent.

Having the tail quills ending in sharp, naked tips. Spine- tailed swift. (Zoöl.) See Spinetail (a).

One who spoils; a plunderer; a pillager; a robber; a despoiler.

One who paints or colors in figures by means of stencil. [Written also stenciller.]

Producing little or no crop; barren; unfruitful; unproductive; not fertile; as, sterile land; a sterile desert; a sterile year.

Having the quill feathers of the tail somewhat rigid.

Mode of composition. See Style. [Obs.] May I not write in such a stile as this Bunyan.

A stiletto. [R.]

rimmed into a pointed form. [Obs.] The very quack of fashions, the very he that Wears a stiletto on his chin. Ford.

A scaly multiple fruit resulting from the ripening of an ament in certain plants, as the hop or pine; a cone. See Cone, n., 3.

Having a short, thick tail. Stump-tailed lizard (Zoöl.), a singular Australian scincoid lizard (Trachydosaurus rugosus) having a short, thick tail resembling its head in form; -- called also sleeping lizard.

Somewhat prehensile; prehensile in an inferior degree.

See Substyle.

Thin; not dense or gross; rare; as, subtile air; subtile vapor; a subtile medium.

Done by stitching. [R.] Boswell.

a swallow's tail in form; having narrow and tapering or pointed skirts; as, a swallow- tailed coat.

se, of touch; perceiving, or perceptible, by the touch; capable of being touched; as, tactile corpuscles; tactile sensations. "Tactile sweets." Beaumont. "Tactile qualities." Sir M. Hale. Tactile sense (Physiol.), the sense of touch, or pressure sense. See Touch. The delicacy of the tactile sense varies on different pa…

a tail; having (such) a tail or (so many) tails; -- chiefly used in composition; as, bobtailed, longtailed, etc. Snouted and tailed like a boar. Grew.

Furnished with tendrils, or with such or so many, tendrils. "The thousand tendriled vine." Southey.