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The act of breaking apart, or separating; the state of being asunder; as, the rupture of the skin; the rupture of a vessel or fiber; the rupture of a lutestring. Arbuthnot. Hatch from the egg, that soon, Bursting with kindly rupture, forth disclosed Their callow young. Milton.

The gossamer-winged butterflies; a family of small butterflies, including the hairstreaks, violets, and theclas.

Roaring, as of waves breaking upon the shore; rote. See Rote.

, effort, sorrow, or the like. Peaceful sleep out the sabbath of the tomb. Pope. Sabbath breaker, one who violates the law of the Sabbath. -- Sabbath breaking, the violation of the law of the Sabbath. -- Sabbath-day's journey, a distance of about a mile, which, under Rabbinical law, the Jews were allowed to travel on…

r or mine lift, having appliances to prevent it from dropping if the lifting rope should break. -- Safety lamp. (Mining) See under Lamp. -- Safety match, a match which can be ignited only on a surface specially prepared for the purpose. -- Safety pin, a pin made in the form of a clasp, with a guard covering its poin…

y; as a body of troops from a fortified place to attack besiegers; to make a sally. They break the truce, and sally out by night. Dryden. The foe retires, -- she heads the sallying host. Byron.

A concentrated fire from pieces of artillery, as in endeavoring to make a break in a fortification; a volley.

Breaking or destroying stones; saxifragous. [R.] -- n.

A slight iregular protuberance which defaces the surface of a casting, caused by the breaking away of a part of the mold.

A freak; a slip; a fault; an escapade. [Obs.] Not pardoning so much as the scapes of error and ignorance. Milton.

A cancerous tumor which is hard, translucent, of a gray or bluish color, and emits a creaking sound when incised. [Sometimes incorrectly written schirrus; written also skirrhus.]

A break in the surface of a thing made by scratching, or by rubbing with anything pointed or rough; a slight wound, mark, furrow, or incision. The coarse file . . . makes deep scratches in the work. Moxon. These nails with scratches deform my breast. Prior. God forbid a shallow scratch should drive The prince of Wales…

A breach or rent; a breaking forth into a loud, shrill sound; as, martial screeds.

A breaking or overflow of a bank or a dike by the sea. L'Estrange.

subsidence of the fever with which the disease began, as the fever which attends the outbreak of the eruption in smallpox. -- Secondary hemorrhage (Med.), hemorrhage occuring from a wounded blood vessel at some considerable time after the original bleeding has ceased. -- Secondary planet. (Astron.) See the Note unde…

Breaking from the partitions; -- said of a method of dehiscence in which the valves of a pod break away from the partitions, and these remain attached to the common axis.

le of ice among the crevasses of a glacier; also, one of the blocks into which a glacier breaks on a steep grade.

To cut or break open or apart; to divide into parts; to cut through; to disjoin; as, to sever the arm or leg. Our state can not be severed; we are one. Milton.

A scarecrow, generally made of feathers tied to a string, hung up to prevent deer from breaking into a place. Halliwell.

Nares. I must not have my board pastered with shadows That under other men's protection break in Without invitement. Massinger. Shadow of death, darkness or gloom like that caused by the presence or the impending of death. Ps. xxiii. 4.