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as the special patron of the poor and the afficted. Atterbury. To this special evil an improvement of style would apply a special redress. De Quincey.

parts of tin, with sometimes a small proportion of arsenic, antimony, or zinc added to improve the whiteness.

property and correctness of speech. Swift. A disposition to preserve, and an ability to improve, taken together, would be my standard of a statesman. Burke.

adfast; firmness; fixedness; constancy. "The steadfastness of your faith." Col. ii. 5. To prove her wifehood and her steadfastness. Chaucer.

The act of stealing; theft. [Obs.] The owner proveth the stealth to have been committed upon him by such an outlaw. Spenser.

e feet, but may be more or less. Used also figuratively of any kind of progress; as, he improved step by step, or by steps. To derive two or three general principles of motion from phenomena, and afterwards to tell us how the properties and actions of all corporeal things follow from those manifest principles, would be…

A certain standard of quality or value for money. Sterling was the known and approved standard in England, in all probability, from the beginning of King Henry the Second's reign. S. M. Leake.

buted anything to the stop of the infection. De Foe. Occult qualities put a stop to the improvement of natural philosophy. Sir I. Newton. It is a great step toward the mastery of our desires to give this stop to them. Locke.

Scott. 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.

hanics; hence, urgency; importance; weight; significance. The faculties of the mind are improved by exercise, yet they must not be put to a stress beyond their strength. Locke. A body may as well lay too little as too much stress upon a dream. L'Estrange.

To allege or prove to be of unsound mind, so that the performance of some act may be avoided.

To exalt; to heighten; to improve; to purify. The sun . . . Which not alone the southern wit sublimes, But ripens spirits in cold, northern climes. Pope.

Having no success. Successless all her soft caresses prove. Pope. -- Suc*cess"less*ly, adv. -- Suc*cess"less*ness, n.

d service, above. -- To bring suit. (Law) (a) To bring secta, followers or witnesses, to prove the plaintiff's demand. [Obs.] (b) In modern usage, to institute an action. -- To follow suit. (Card Playing) See under Follow, v. t.

agining, or considering as true or existing, what is known not to be true, or what is not proved.

guess; as, the surmisses of jealousy or of envy. [We] double honor gain From his surmise proved false. Milton. No man ought to be charged with principles he actually disowns, unless his practicies contradict his profession; not upon small surmises. Swift.

To prove; to establish by evidence; to corroborate or confirm; to be conclusive of; as, to sustain a charge, an accusation, or a proposition.

ned liberty or license; tendency. "Take thy swing." Dryden. To prevent anything which may prove an obstacle to the full swing of his genius. Burke. Full swing. See under Full. -- Swing beam (Railway Mach.), a crosspiece sustaining the car body, and so suspended from the framing of a truck that it may have an independe…

in Western New England. They were once supposed to be older than the Cambrian, but later proved to belong to the Lower Silurian and Cambrian.