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vate, flattish seeds of these plants, sometimes used as food. See Benne. Open Sesame, the magical command which opened the door of the robber's den in the Arabian Nights' tale of "The Forty Thieves;" hence, a magical password. -- Sesame grass. (Bot.) Same as Gama grass.

The head of an Arab family, or of a clan or a tribe; also, the chief magistrate of an Arab village. The name is also applied to Mohammedan ecclesiastics of a high grade. [Written also scheik, shaik, sheikh.]

s likened, in one or more of its aspects, to something else; a similitude; a poetical or imaginative comparison. A good swift simile, but something currish. Shak.

The act of likening, or that which likens, one thing to another; fanciful or imaginative comparison; a simile. Tasso, in his similitudes, never departed from the woods; that is, all his comparisons were taken from the country. Dryden.

that which we properly call "slander", or "Backbiting." Tillotson. [We] make the careful magistrate The mark of slander. B. Jonson.

plate or slip of glass on which is a picture or delineation to be exhibited by means of a magic lantern, stereopticon, or the like; a plate on which is an object to be examined with a microscope.

To afflict; to chasten; to punish. Let us not mistake God's goodness, nor imagine, because he smites us, that we are forsaken by him. Wake.

Fig.: To rise in thought, spirits, or imagination; to be exalted in mood. Where the deep transported mind may soar. Milton. Valor soars above What the world calls misfortune. Addison.

Habitual freedom from enthusiasm, inordinate passion, or overheated imagination; calmness; coolness; gravity; seriousness; as, the sobriety of riper years. Mirth makes them not mad, Nor sobriety sad. Denham.

tints. The sun, shining upon the upper part of the clouds . . . made the softest lights imaginable. Sir T. Browne.

solid men. Dryden. The genius of the Italians wrought by solid toil what the myth-making imagination of the Germans had projected in a poem. J. A. Symonds.

Of or pertaining to sleep or dreams. The somnial magic superinducted on, without suspending, the active powers of the mind. Coleridge.

A conjurer; an enchanter; a magician. Bacon. Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers. Ex. vii. 11.

stance, or supposed assistance, of evil spirits, or the power of commanding evil spirits; magic; necromancy; witchcraft; enchantment. Adder's wisdom I have learned, To fence my ear against thy sorceries. Milton.

Visible or sensible presentation; appearance; a sensible percept received by the imagination; an image. [R.] "The species of the letters illuminated with indigo and violet." Sir I. Newton. Wit, . . . the faculty of imagination in the writer, which searches over all the memory for the species or ideas of those things wh…

A stanza, verse, or phrase supposed to be endowed with magical power; an incantation; hence, any charm. Start not; her actions shall be holy as You hear my spell is lawful. Shak.

Power or effect of magic; that which is wrought by magic; enchantment. Like those Peri isles of light That hang by spellwork in the air. Moore.

Winding round a cylinder or imaginary axis, and at the same time rising or advancing forward; winding like the thread of a screw; helical.

To fill with spite; to offend; to vex. [R.] Darius, spited at the Magi, endeavored to abolish not only their learning, but their language. Sir. W. Temple.

ve ranks, and the colors, officers, horses, etc., occupying the middle. -- Least square, Magic square, etc. See under Least, Magic, etc. -- On the square, or Upon the square, in an open, fair manner; honestly, or upon honor. [Obs. or Colloq.] -- On, or Upon, the square with, upon equality with; even with. Nares. --…