Search the Dictionary

To taste before full possession; to have previous enjoyment or experience of; to anticipate.

rime; to render one's self by misdeed liable to be deprived of; to alienate the right to possess, by some neglect or crime; as, to forfeit an estate by treason; to forfeit reputation by a breach of promise; -- with to before the one acquiring what is forfeited. [They] had forfeited their property by their crimes. Burke…

in external religious forms, or observes strictly the outward forms of worship, without possessing the life and spirit of religion. As far a formalist from wisdom sits, In judging eyes, as libertines from wits. Young.

Wealth; large possessions; large estate; riches; as, a gentleman of fortune.

accessible, to all; to be enjoyed without limitations; unrestricted; not obstructed, engrossed, or appropriated; open; -- said of a thing to be possessed or enjoyed; as, a free school. Why, sir, I pray, are not the streets as free For me as for you Shak.

edom fine, a sum paid on entry to incorporations of trades. -- Freedom of the city, the possession of the rights and privileges of a freeman of the city; formerly often, and now occasionally, conferred on one not a resident, as a mark of honorary distinction for public services.

The possessor of a freehold.

A member of a corporation, company, or city, possessing certain privileges; a member of a borough, town, or State, who has the right to vote at elections. See Liveryman. Burrill. Both having been made freemen on the same day. Addison.

Possessed of original life and vigor; new and strong; unimpaired; sound.

The peristome or fringelike appendage of the capsules of most mosses. See Peristome. Fringe tree (Bot.), a small tree (Chionanthus Virginica), growing in the Southern United States, and having snow- white flowers, with long pendulous petals.

ontinuations of the rails, to guide the wheels where one track branches from another or crosses it.

The spore cases or conceptacles of flowerless plants, as of ferns, mosses, algae, etc., with the spores contained in them.

Use or possession of anything, especially such as is accompanied with pleasure or satisfaction; pleasure derived from possession or use. "Capacity of fruition." Rogers. "Godlike fruition." Milton. Where I may have fruition of her love. Shak.

Eujoying; possessing. [Obs.] Boyle.

lying, or disposed to fly; fleeing away; lasting but a short time; volatile. Much of its possessions is so hid, so fugacious, and of so uncertain purchase. Jer. Taylor.

One of several species of sea birds, of the family procellariidæ, allied to the albatrosses and petrels. Among the well- known species are the arctic fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis) (called also fulmar petrel, malduck, and mollemock), and the giant fulmar (Ossifraga gigantea).

The obtaining or amassing of profit or valuable possessions; acquisition; accumulation. "The lust of gain." Tennyson.

Prepossessing; well-favored. [Obs.] Massinger.

lower plants, as the algæ, the gametophyte is the conspicuous part of the plant body; in mosses it is the so-called moss plant; in ferns it is reduced to a small, early perishing body; and in seed plants it is usually microscopic or rudimentary.

Gammoning fashion, in the style of gammoning lashing, that is, having the turns of rope crossed. -- Gammoning hole (Naut.), a hole cut through the knee of the head of a vessel for the purpose of gammoning the bowsprit.