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A machine for raising and lowering heavy weights, and, while holding them suspended, transporting them through a limited lateral distance. In one form it consists of a projecting arm or jib of timber or iron, a rotating post or base, and the necessary tackle, windlass, etc.; -- so called from a fancied similarity betwe…

A person who owes his rise and fortune to another; a servile dependent; an instrument; a tool. A creature of the queen's, Lady Anne Bullen. Shak. Both Charles himself and his creature, Laud. Macualay.

peculiar fruit of fennel, carrott, parsnip, and the like, consisting of a pair of carpels pendent from a supporting axis.

Bearing any elevated appendage like a crest, as an elevated line or ridge, or a tuft. Gray.

e, with the heavy and ungrounded charge of disloyalty and disaffection, an uncorrupt, independent, and reforming parliament. Burke.

he small moment, the exact point, the critical minute, on which every good work so much depends. South. Critical angle (Optics), that angle of incidence of a luminous ray at which it is wholly reflected, and no portion of it transmitted. The sine of this angle is the reciprocal of the refractive index of the medium. -…

, or of a production in the fine arts; as, dramatic criticism. The elements ofcriticism depend on the two principles of Beauty and Truth, one of which is the final end or object of study in every one of its pursuits: Beauty, in letters and the arts; Truth, in history and sciences. Brande & C. By criticism, as it was fi…

An appendage or ornament or anything in the form of a cross; a badge or ornamental device of the general shape of a cross; hence, such an ornament, even when varying considerably from that form; thus, the Cross of the British Order of St. George and St. Michael consist of a central medallion with seven arms radiating f…

A hinge having one strap perpendicular and the other strap horizontal giving it the form of an Egyptian or T cross.

rangement of a body of troops, either forward or rearward, so as to form a line nearly perpendicular to the general line of battle.

A number of small cords rove through a long block, or euphroe, to suspend an awning by.

(Fritillaria imperialis) of the Lily family, having at the top of the stalk a cluster of pendent bell- shaped flowers surmounted with a tuft of green leaves.

by a party or faction and repeated for effect; as, the party cry of the Tories. All now depends upon a good cry. Beaconsfield.

Any ornamental appendage at the wrist, whether attached to the sleeve of the garment or separate;especially, in modern times, such an appendage of starched linen, or a substitute for it of paper, or the like.

A small or short course. Upon a curricle in this world depends a long course of the next. Sir T. Browne.

the plane of the ecliptic, or the distance from the sun or earth to that point where a perpendicular, let fall from the planet upon the plane of the ecliptic, meets the ecliptic. Curtate cycloid. (Math.) See Cycloid.

divided among heirs, legatees, etc. [Slang.] "When I die, may I cut up as well as Morgan Pendennis." Thackeray.

ials like a sloop. A cutter is narrower end deeper than a sloop of the same length, and depends for stability on a deep keel, often heavily weighted with lead.

An appendage of the vestibular ear sac of fishes. Owen.

A nonnucleated mass of protoplasm, the supposed simplest form of independent life differing from the amoeba, in which nuclei are present.