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ott. Such take too high a strain at first. Bacon. The genius and strain of the book of Proverbs. Tillotson. It [Pilgrim's Progress] seems a novelty, and yet contains Nothing but sound and honest gospel strains. Bunyan.

Anything proverbially worthless; the least possible thing; a mere trifle. I set not a straw by thy dreamings. Chaucer.

rever we come to an anchor, we always send out our strikers, and put out hooks and lines overboard, to try fish. Dampier.

Pertaining to, or designating, a verb which forms its preterit (imperfect) by a variation in the root vowel, and the past participle (usually) by the addition of -en (with or without a change of the root vowel); as in the verbs strive, strove, striven; break, broke, broken; drink, drank, drunk. Opposed to weak, or regu…

tion or discourse; that which is spoken of; as, the nominative case is the subject of the verb. The subject of a proposition is that concerning which anything is affirmed or denied. I. Watts.

ed or added to something before said or written. Subjunctive mood (Gram.), that form of a verb which express the action or state not as a fact, but only as a conception of the mind still contingent and dependent. It is commonly subjoined, or added as subordinate, to some other verb, and in English is often connected wi…

Betokening or expressing existence; as, the substantive verb, that is, the verb to be.

Lofty with pride; haughty; dictatorial; overbearing; arrogant; as, a supercilious officer; asupercilious air; supercilious behavior. -- Su`per*cil"i*ous*ly, adv. -- Su`per*cil"i*ous*ness, n.

he highest or lowest degree of the quality, manner, etc., denoted by an adjective or an adverb. The superlative degree is formed from the positive by the use of -est, most, or least; as, highest, most pleasant, least bright. -- Su`per*la"tive*ly, adv. -- Su`per*la"tive*ness, n.

A verbal noun; or (according to C.F.Becker), a case of the infinitive mood ending in -um and -u, that in -um being sometimes called the former supine, and that in -u the latter supine.

To overload; to overburden; to overmatch; to overcharge; as, to surcharge a beast or a ship; to surcharge a cannon. Four charged two, and two surcharged one. Spenser. Your head reclined, as hiding grief from view, Droops like a rose surcharged with morning dew. Dryden.

The agreement of a verb or adjective with one, rather than another, of two nouns, with either of which it might agree in gender, number, etc.; as, rex et regina beati.

Similarity of function, use office, or the like. The adverb has most sympathy with the verb. Earle.

Coalescence; a growing into one with another word. [R.] Some of the phrasal adverbs have assumed the form of single words, by that symphytism which naturally attaches these light elements to each other. Earle.

Not capable of being used as a term by itself; -- said of words, as an adverb or preposition.

Like a Tarquin, a king of ancient Rome; proud; haughty; overbearing.

s or property for the support of a government. A farmer of taxes is, of all creditors, proverbially the most rapacious. Macaulay.

One of the forms which a verb takes by inflection or by adding auxiliary words, so as to indicate the time of the action or event signified; the modification which verbs undergo for the indication of time.

tergiversating; a shifting; shift; subterfuge; evasion. Writing is to be preferred before verbal conferences, as being freer from passions and tergiversations. Abp. Bramhall.

To make a solemn declaration, verbal or written, to establish some fact; to give testimony for the purpose of communicating to others a knowledge of something not known to them. Jesus . . . needed not that any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man. John ii. 25.