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To strike gently; to give a gentle blow to. Chucked the barmaid under the chin. W. Irving.

The fragrant flowers of the Chloranthus inconspicuus, used in China for perfuming tea.

urning thanks in church, as after deliverance from the dangers of childbirth; as, the churching of women.

A machine, combining magic lantern and kinetoscope features, for projecting on a screen a series of pictures, moved rapidly (25 to 50 a second) and intermittently before an objective lens, and producing by persistence of vision the illusion of continuous motion; a moving-picture machine; also, any of several other mach…

Crying earnestly, beseeching clamorousky. "Clamant children." Thomson.

To relieve from some uneasy sensation, as by scratching; to tickle; hence, to flatter; to court. [Obs.] Rich men they claw, soothe up, and flatter; the poor they contemn and despise. Holland.

To leap or pass by, or over, without touching or fallure; as, to clear a hedge; to clear a reef.

To ascend or creep upward by twining about a support, or by attaching itself by tendrills, rootlets, etc., to a support or upright surface.

A hitch or bend by which a rope is made fast to the ring of an anchor, or the breeching of a ship's gun to the ringbolts.

To cause to adhere to, especially by twining round or embraching. [Obs.] I clung legs as close to his side as I could. Swift.

A machine for clipping hair, esp. the hair of horses.

A machine for measuring time, indicating the hour and other divisions by means of hands moving on a dial plate. Its works are moved by a weight or a spring, and it is often so constructed as to tell the hour by the stroke of a hammer on a bell. It is not adapted, like the watch, to be carried on the person.…

The machinery of a clock, or machinary resembling that of a clock; machinery which produced regularity of movement.

A series of muscular contractions due to sudden stretching of the muscle, -- a sign of certain neuropathies.

uted over several octaves. -- Close time, a fixed period during which killing game or catching certain fish is prohibited by law. -- Close vowel (Pron.), a vowel which is pronounced with a diminished aperture of the lips, or with contraction of the cavity of the mouth. -- Close to the wind (Naut.), directed as nearl…

The act of shutting; a closing; as, the closure of a chink.

Having clouds resting on the top or head; reaching to the clouds; as, cloud-capped mountains.

A gripe or clinching with, or as with, the fingers or claws; seizure; grasp. "The clutch of poverty." Cowper. An expiring clutch at popularity. Carlyle. But Age, with his stealing steps, Hath clawed me in his clutch. Shak.

Like or related to the genus Clupeaster; -- applied to a group of flattened sea urchins, with a rosette of pores on the upper side.

To drive or to ride in a coach; -- sometimes used with it. [Colloq.] "Coaching it to all quarters." E. Waterhouse.