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ting ballast, ballast which may be moved from one side of a vessel to another as safety requires. -- Shifting center. See Metacenter. -- Shifting locomotive. See Switching engine, under Switch.

husband. See under Husband. -- Ship's papers (Mar. Law), papers with which a vessel is required by law to be provided, and the production of which may be required on certain occasions. Among these papers are the register, passport or sea letter, charter party, bills of lading, invoice, log book, muster roll, bill of h…

Amount or extent of deficiency, as determined by some requirement or standard; as, a shortage in money accounts.

A notification by a candidate for orders of his intention to inquire whether any impediment may be alleged against him.

affix a signature to; to ratify by hand or seal; to subscribe in one's own handwriting. Inquire the Jew's house out, give him this deed, And let him sign it. Shak.

To acquire a silvery color. [R.] The eastern sky began to silver and shine. L. Wallace.

Any office or position which requires or involves little or no responsibility, labor, or active service. A lucrative sinecure in the Excise. Macaulay.

To bring or adjust anything exactly to a required dimension, as by cutting. To size up, to estimate or ascertain the character and ability of. See 4th Size, 4. [Slang, U.S.] We had to size up our fellow legislators. The Century.

yet undecided as to what is true; one who is looking or inquiring for what is true; an inquirer after facts or reasons.

Lit., skilled mechanical work, such as that required in wood carving; trade work; hence, a system (usually called the sloyd system) of manual training in the practical use of the tools and materials used in the trades, and of instruction in the making and use of the plans and specifications connected with trade work. T…

To gain a slight taste of; to acquire a slight, superficial knowledge of; to smack. Chaucer.

A young salmon two or three years old, when it has acquired its silvery color.

ur family to do so too. Locke. It concerns every man, with the greatest seriousness, to inquire into those matters, whether they be so or not. Tillotson. He is Sir Robert's son, and so art thou. Shak.

ate from the pronoun or adverb. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required. Luke xii. 48. What great thing soever a man proposed to do in his life, he should think of achieving it by fifty. Sir W. Temple.

Made in form; ceremonious; as, solemn war; conforming with all legal requirements; as, probate in solemn form. Burrill. Jarman. Greenleaf. Solemn League and Covenant. See Covenant, 2.

ece; especially, one of those who, by their fallacious but plausible reasoning, puzzled inquirers after truth, weakened the faith of the people, and drew upon themselves general hatred and contempt. Many of the Sophists doubdtless card not for truth or morality, and merely professed to teach how to make the worse appea…

quially, out of order; ill; vexed; disturbed. -- To run upon sorts (Print.), to use or require a greater number of some particular letters, figures, or marks than the regular proportion, as, for example, in making an index.

ualification, which is called upon motion of either party when the cause is supposed to require it; a struck jury. -- Special orders (Mil.), orders which do not concern, and are not published to, the whole command, such as those relating to the movement of a particular corps, a detail, a temporary camp, etc. -- Speci…

gravity. (Physics) See under Gravity. -- Specific heat (Physics), the quantity of heat required to raise temperature of a body one degree, taking as the unit of measure the quantity required to raise the same weight of water from zero to one degree; thus, the specific heat of mercury is 0.033, that of water being 1.00…

To search; to pry; to ask; to inquire. [Prov. Eng. & Scot.] [Written also speer, speir.] Jamieson.