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the body and head, give a somewhat rhombic form to these fishes. The skin is more or less spinose.

state, produced by a carding machine and ready for the roving or slubbing which preceeds spinning.

A small, bitter, wild European plum, the fruit of the blackthorn (Prunus spinosa); also, the tree itself.

Having the fin rays cartilaginous or flexible; without spines; -- said of certain fishes.

oldier bug (Zoöl.), any hemipterous insect of the genus Podisus and allied genera, as the spined soldier bug (Podius spinosus). These bugs suck the blood of other insects. -- Soldier crab (Zoöl.) (a) The hermit crab. (b) The fiddler crab. -- Soldier fish (Zoöl.), a bright-colored etheostomoid fish (Etheostoma coerule…

imp. & p. p. of Spin.

r the Spaniards. Spanish bayonet (Bot.), a liliaceous plant (Yucca alorifolia) with rigid spine-tipped leaves. The name is also applied to other similar plants of the Southwestern United States and mexico. Called also Spanish daggers. -- Spanish bean (Bot.) See the Note under Bean. -- Spanish black, a black pigment o…

of or pertaining to the Sparidæ, a family of spinous-finned fishes which includes the scup, sheepshead, and sea bream. -- n.

a shaft in a given time. -- Speed lathe (Mach.), a power lathe with a rapidly revolving spindle, for turning small objects, for polishing, etc.; a hand lathe. -- Speed pulley, a cone pulley with steps.

son fangs, or falcers. The abdomen is large and not segmented, with two or three pairs of spinnerets near the end, by means of which they spin threads of silk to form cocoons, or nests, to protect their eggs and young. Many species spin also complex webs to entrap the insects upon which they prey. The eyes are usually…

he tops waves during a gale at sea; also, snow driven in the wind at sea; -- written also spindrift.

fever (Med.), a name applied to various eruptive fevers, esp. to typhus fever and cerebro-spinal meningitis. -- Spotted tree (Bot.), an Australian tree (Flindersia maculosa); -- so called because its bark falls off in spots.

A machine for combining and drawing fibers of flax to form a sliver preparatory to spinning.

imp. & p. p. of Spin. Spun hay, hay twisted into ropes for convenient carriage, as on a military expedition. -- Spun silk, a cheap article produced from floss, or short-fibered, broken, and waste silk, carded and spun, in distinction from the long filaments wound from the cocoon. It is often mixed with cotton. -- Spu…

Any stiff, sharp spine, as on the wings and legs of certain burds, on the legs of insects, etc.; especially, the spine on a cock's leg.

e (Alopochen Ægyptiaca). -- Spur-winged plover (Zoöl.), an Old World plover (Hoplopterus spinosus) having a sharp spur on the bend of the wing. It inhabits Northern Africa and the adjacent parts of Asia and Europe.

Any one of several species of spiny-rayed marine fishes belonging to Uranoscopus, Astroscopus, and allied genera, of the family Uranoscopidæ. The common species of the Eastern United States are Astroscopus anoplus, and A. guttatus. So called from the position of the eyes, which look directly upward.…

l.), a European skate (Raita radiata); -- so called from the stellate bases of the dorsal spines.

genus of large Jurassic dinosaurs remarkable for a powerful dermal armature of plates and spines.

A bearing in which the lower extremity of a spindle or a vertical shaft revolves.