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to a subject, or predicable of it; distinguishing property, characteristic, or attribute; peculiar power, capacity, or virtue; distinctive trait; as, the tones of a flute differ from those of a violin in quality; the great quality of a statesman.

ct, as if from a contract; a quasi corporation, a body that has some, but not all, of the peculiar attributes of a corporation; a quasi argument, that which resembles, or is used as, an argument; quasi historical, apparently historical, seeming to be historical.

The essence, nature, or distinctive peculiarity, of a thing; that which answers the question, Quid est or, What is it " The degree of nullity and quiddity." Bacon. The quiddity or characteristic difference of poetry as distinguished from prose. De Quincey.

A rabbinic expression or phraseology; a peculiarity of the language of the rabbins.

Peculiar flavor, taste, or strength, as of wine; that quality, or assemblage of qualities, which indicates origin or kind, as in wine; hence, characteristic flavor; smack. "A race of heaven." Shak. Is it [the wine] of the right race Massinqer.

The quality of being racy; peculiar and piquant flavor. The general characteristics of his [Cobbett's] style were perspicuity, unequaled and inimitable; . . . a purity always simple, and raciness often elegant. London Times.

A variety of the game of tennis played with peculiar long-handled rackets; -- chiefly in the plural. Chaucer.

Exciting to the mental taste by a strong or distinctive character of thought or language; peculiar and piquant; fresh and lively. Our raciest, most idiomatic popular word. M. Arnold. Burn's English, though not so racy as his Scotch, is generally correct. H. Coleridge. The rich and racy humor of a natural converser fres…

A keen-edged knife of peculiar shape, used in shaving the hair from the face or the head. "Take thee a barber's rasor." Ezek. v. 1.

me possessed of principles. Coleridge. The sense perceives; the understanding, in its own peculiar operation, conceives; the reason, or rationalized understanding, comprehends. Coleridge.

bles of which they are composed; enigmatical representation of words by figures; hence, a peculiar form of riddle made up of such representations.

Sought out with care; choice. Hence: of rare quality, elegance, or attractiveness; peculiar and refined in kind.

Luster; special brilliancy of surface; -- used esp. in ceramics to denote the peculiar metallic brilliancy seen in lustered pottery such as majolica; as, silver reflet; gold reflet.

To pay respect to; to treat as something of peculiar value, sanctity, or the like; to care for; to esteem. He that regardeth thae day, regardeth it into the LOrd. Rom. xiv. 6. Here's Beaufort, that regards nor God nor king. Shak.

possession of goods and chattle wrongfully taken or detained. Originally, it was a remedy peculiar to cases for wrongful distress, but it may generally now be brought in all cases of wrongful taking or detention. Bouvier.

Having gular teeth formed by a peculiar modification of the inferior spines of some of the vertebræ, as certain South African snakes (Dasypelits) which swallow birds' eggs and use these gular teeth to crush them.

An order of reptiles having biconcave vertebræ, immovable quadrate bones, and many other peculiar osteological characters. Hatteria is the only living genus, but numerous fossil genera are known, some of which are among the earliest of reptiles. See Hatteria. Called also Rhynchocephalia.

The peculiar fitting in shape, number, and arrangement of sails and masts, by which different types of vessels are distinguished; as, schooner rig, ship rig, etc. See Illustration in Appendix.

The quality of being risible; as, risibility is peculiar to the human species. A strong and obvious disposition to risibility. Sir W. Scott.

An affection of the windpipe of a horse, causing a loud, peculiar noise in breathing under exertion; the making of the noise so caused. See Roar, v. i., 5.