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To render equivocal or ambiguous. He equivocated his vow by a mental reservation. Sir G. Buck.

The depression behind the beak of certain bivalves; the ligamental area. Escutcheon of pretense, an escutcheon used in English heraldry to display the arms of the bearer's wife; -- not commonly used unless she an heiress. Cf. Impalement.

indispensable; -- said of those tones which constitute a chord, in distinction from ornamental or passing tones.

To produce, as figures or designs, on mental, glass, or the like, by means of lines or strokes eaten in or corroded by means of some strong acid.

Original or fundamental signification. [R.] Given as the etymon or genuine sense of the word. Coleridge.

The fundamental forms of organic life, that are composed of two equal and symmetrical halves. Syd. Soc. Lex.

A male of the human species castrated; commonly, one of a class of such persons, in Oriental countries, having charge of the women's apartments. Some of them, in former times, gained high official rank.

An excrescence or appendage; an outgrowth. [Obs.] "Ornamental excrements." Fuller. Living creatures put forth (after their period of growth) nothing that is young but hair and nails, which are excrements and no parts. Bacon.

ch is done for the sake of exercising, practicing, training, or promoting skill, health, mental, improvement, moral discipline, etc.; that which is assigned or prescribed for such ebbs; hence, a disquisition; a lesson; a task; as, military or naval exercises; musical exercises; an exercise in composition. The clumsy ex…

To look for (mentally); to look forward to, as to something that is believed to be about to happen or come; to have a previous apprehension of, whether of good or evil; to look for with some confidence; to anticipate; -- often followed by an infinitive, sometimes by a clause (with, or without, that); as I expect to rec…

f knowledge, one or more, by which single facts or general truths are ascertained; experimental or inductive knowledge; hence, implying skill, facility, or practical wisdom gained by personal knowledge, feeling or action; as, a king without experience of war. Whence hath the mind all the materials of reason and knowled…

Experimental; of the nature of experiment. [R.]

ything objectionable; to render accessible to anything which may affect, especially detrimentally; to make liable; as, to expose one's self to the heat of the sun, or to cold, insult, danger, or ridicule; to expose an army to destruction or defeat. Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel. Shak.

anner that it was when committed. Ex post facto laws are held to be contrary to the fundamental principles of a free government, and the States are prohibited from passing such laws by the Constitution of the United States. Burrill. Kent.

or bare; openness to danger; accessibility to anything that may affect, especially detrimentally; as, exposure to observation, to cold to inconvenience. When we have our naked frailties hid, That suffer in exposure. Shak.

; exact; nice; fastidious; as, exquisite judgment, taste, or discernment. His books of Oriental languages, wherein he was exquisite. Fuller.

Outwardly perceptible; visible; physical or corporeal, as distinguished from mental or moral. Her virtues graced with external gifts. Shak.

Having one's mental imagery prevailingly of the visual type; having one's thoughts and memories mainly in the form of visual images. -- Eye"-mind`ed*ness, n.

A large ornamental letter used, esp. by the early printers, at the commencement of the chapters and other divisions of a book. Brande & C.

whether inborn or cultivated; capacity for any natural function; especially, an original mental power or capacity for any of the well-known classes of mental activity; psychical or soul capacity; capacity for any of the leading kinds of soul activity, as knowledge, feeling, volition; intellectual endowment or gift; pow…