Search the Dictionary

A coarse fish of India, used in making a breakfast relish called burtah.

Soil; tarnish; stain. A noble and triumphant merit breaks through little spots and sullies in his reputation. Spectator.

To disunite in almost any manner, either by rending, cutting, or breaking; to part; to put or keep apart; to separate; to divide; to sever; as, to sunder a rope; to sunder a limb; to sunder friends. It is sundered from the main land by a sandy plain. Carew.

The swell of the sea which breaks upon the shore, esp. upon a sloping beach. Surf bird (Zoöl.), a ploverlike bird of the genus Aphriza, allied to the turnstone. -- Surf clam (Zoöl.), a large clam living on the open coast, especially Mactra, or Spisula, solidissima. See Mactra. -- Surf duck (Zoöl.), any one of several…

lation; surplus words. When the price of corn falleth, men give over surplus tillage, and break no more ground. Carew.

Water breaking in upon the miners at their work; -- so called among tin miners. [Prov. Eng.]

o the lower pond. -- Tail of the trenches (Fort.), the post where the besiegers begin to break ground, and cover themselves from the fire of the place, in advancing the lines of approach. -- Tail spindle, the spindle of the tailstock of a turning lathe; -- called also dead spindle. -- To turn tail, to run away; to f…

An injury done to a lance in an encounter, without its being broken; also, a breaking of a lance in an encounter in a dishonorable or unscientific manner. [Obs.]

To beat; to break, as flax or hemp. [Obs.] Mortimer.

r larceny. See Theft. There came a privy thief, men clepeth death. Chaucer. Where thieves break through and steal. Matt. vi. 19.

To utter with breaks and interruption, in the manner of a person half suffocated. [R.] Throttle their practiced accent in their fears. Shak.

The breaking down of the roof of a gallery under its superincumbent weight. Thrust bearing (Screw Steamers), a bearing arranged to receive the thrust or endwise pressure of the screw shaft. -- Thrust plane (Geol.), the surface along which dislocation has taken place in the case of a reversed fault.

legal; as, the sacred ties of friendship or of duty; the ties of allegiance. No distance breaks the tie of blood. Young.

A lunch, or slight repast between breakfast and dinner; -- originally, a Provincial English word, but introduced into India, and brought back to England in a special sense.

13. Mediate so long till you make some act of prayer to God. Jer. Taylor. There was no outbreak till the regiment arrived. Macaulay.

riage mounted on track rails. It is used esp. for setting heavy masonry blocks for piers, breakwaters, etc.

An obsolete intensive prefix used in the formation of compound verbs; as in to-beat, to-break, to-hew, to-rend, to-tear. See these words in the Vocabulary. See the Note on All to, or All-to, under All, adv.

To burst or break in pieces. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Having the quality of flexibility without brittleness; yielding to force without breaking; capable of resisting great strain; as, the ligaments of animals are remarkably tough. "Tough roots and stubs. " Milton.

An igneous rock,usually light gray in color and breaking with a rough surface. It consists chiefly of orthoclase feldspar with sometimes hornblende and mica.