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Characterized by great atrocity; heinous; aggravated; flagitious; as, a grievous sin. Gen. xviii. 20.

A shaft or excavation. [Prov. Eng.]

figures found in ancient grottoes; grottolike; wildly or strangely formed; whimsical; extravagant; of irregular forms and proportions; fantastic; ludicrous; antic. "Grotesque design." Dryden. "Grotesque incidents." Macaulay.

s smell. Sir L. Hill. (b) A long, creeping, evergreen plant of the genus Lycopodium (L. clavatum); -- called also club moss. (c) A tree-shaped evergreen plant about eight inches in height, of the same genus (L. dendroideum) found in moist, dark woods in the northern part of the United States. Gray. -- Ground plan (Arc…

tter with discontent; to make ill-natured complaints in a low voice and a surly manner. L'Avare, not using half his store, Still grumbles that he has no more. Prior.

A small flag or streamer, as that carried by cavalry, which is broad at one end and nearly pointed at the other, or that used to direct the movements of a body of infantry, or to make signals at sea; also, the flag of a guild or fraternity. In the United States service, each company of cavalry has a guidon. The pendant…

A system of excavating by means of gullets or channels.

les or stones. Pure gurgling rills the lonely desert trace, And waste their music on the savage race. Young.

Delirious; senselessly extravagant; as, the man is clean gyte. [Scot.] Sir W. Scott.

a wall, a room, etc. Hung be the heavens with black. Shak. And hung thy holy roofs with savage spoils. Dryden.

A species of fern (Davallia Canariensis) with a soft, gray, hairy rootstock; -- whence the name.

Hawse plug. Same as Hawse block (above). -- To come in at the hawse holes, to enter the naval service at the lowest grade. [Cant] -- To freshen the hawse, to veer out a little more cable and bring the chafe and strain on another part.

A member of any tribe or race of savages who have the custom of decapitating human beings and preserving their heads as trophies. The Dyaks of Borneo are the most noted head-hunters. -- Head"-hunt`ing, n.

Rude; uncivilized; savage; cruel. South.

r, esp. siege, garrison, and seacoast guns. (b) Troops which serve heavy guns. -- Heavy cavalry. See under Cavalry. -- Heavy fire (Mil.), a continuous or destructive cannonading, or discharge of small arms. -- Heavy metal (Mil.), large guns carrying balls of a large size; also, large balls for such guns. -- Heavy m…

To carry forward; to advance; to increase; to augment; to aggravate; to intensify; to render more conspicuous; -- used of things, good or bad; as, to heighten beauty; to heighten a flavor or a tint. "To heighten our confusion." Addison. An aspect of mystery which was easily heightened to the miraculous. Hawthorne.…

To furnish with relief, as in pain or disease; to be of avail against; -- sometimes with of before a word designating the pain or disease, and sometimes having such a word for the direct object. "To help him of his blindness." in is used for that function; -- "to help him in his misery" Shak. The true calamus helps cou…

ce of recording genealogies, and blazoning arms or ensigns armorial; also, of marshaling cavalcades, processions, and public ceremonies.

ches. -- Hercules' club. (Bot.) (a) An ornamental tree of the West Indies (Zanthoxylum Clava-Herculis), of the same genus with the prickly ash.

y, and Æneas in the Æneid. The shining quality of an epic hero. Dryden. Hero worship, extravagant admiration for great men, likened to the ancient worship of heroes. Hero worship exists, has existed, and will forever exist, universally among mankind. Carlyle.