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Tending, or serving, to retard.

Serving to retract; of the nature of a retraction. -- Re*tract"ive*ly, adv.

A muscle serving to draw in any organ or part. See Illust. under Phylactolæmata.

Furnishing or serving as a retreat. [R.] "Our retreatful flood." Chapman.

Serving to effect reversal, as of motion; capable of being reversed. Reversing engine, a steam engine having a reversing gear by means of which it can be made to run in either direction at will. -- Reversing gear (Mach.), gear for reversing the direction of rotation at will.

Tricks deserving the halter; roguery. [Obs.] "Saucy merchant . . . so full of his ropery." Shak.

A contrivance or arrangement serving as a fulcrum for an oar in rowing. It consists sometimes of a notch in the gunwale of a boat, sometimes of a pair of pins between which the oar rests on the edge of the gunwale, sometimes of a single pin passing through the oar, or of a metal fork or stirrup pivoted in the gunwale a…

ginally, a loosely hanging garnment for women, worn like a cloak about the shoulders, and serving as a decorative appendage to the gown; now, an outer garment with sleeves, worn by women; as, a dressing saek. [Written also sacque.]

The act of keeping or preserving in safety from injury or from escape; care; custody.

its value. [Cant] -- To salt away, To salt down, to prepare with, or pack in, salt for preserving, as meat, eggs, etc.; hence, colloquially, to save, lay up, or invest sagely, as money.

Except; excepting; not including; leaving out; deducting; reserving; saving. Five times received I forty stripes save one. 2 Cor. xi. 24.

1. Preserving; rescuing. He is the saving strength of his anointed. Ps. xxviii. 8.

Serving as an aid in clambering; as, a scaling ladder, used in assaulting a fortified place.

A combining form usually signifying an instrument for viewing (with the eye) or observing (in any way); as in microscope, telescope, altoscope, anemoscope.

Deserving scorn; paltry. [Obs.]

Tending or serving to regulate one's self or itself. Whewell.

Significant; ominous; serving as a warning of danger; --applied esp. to the warning colors or forms of certain animals.

Serving to affect the sense; sensible. [R.] A sensitive love of some sensitive objects. Hammond.

Having or observing logical sequence; logically consistent and rigorous; consecutive in development or transition of thought. The scheme of pantheistic omniscience so prevalent among the sequacious thinkers of the day. Sir W. Hamilton. Milton was not an extensive or discursive thinker, as Shakespeare was; for the motio…

legislative body, or of a deliberative or judicial assembly, who executes commands in preserving order and arresting offenders. See Sergeant, 1. -- Sergeant major. (a) (Mil.) See the Note under def. 2, above. (b) (Zoöl.) The cow pilot.