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A kind of tall headdress formerly worn. Addison.

One who counterfeits folly; a professional jester or buffoon; a retainer formerly kept to make sport, dressed fantastically in motley, with ridiculous accouterments. Can they think me . . . their fool or jester Milton. April fool, Court fool, etc. See under April, Court, etc. -- Fool's cap, a cap or hood to which bell…

A combination of syllables consisting a metrical element of a verse, the syllables being formerly distinguished by their quantity or length, but in modern poetry by the accent.

Formerly, a housing or caparison for a horse. Sir W. Scott.

Formerly, a servant who ran in front of his master's carriage; a runner. Prior.

The rope rigged below a yard, upon which men stand when reefing or furling; -- formerly called a horse.

Formerly; previously; afore. [Obs. or Colloq.] The eyes, fore duteous, now converted are. Shak.

A short upper deck forward, formerly raised like a castle, to command an enemy's decks.

A purveyor of the king; -- so called, formerly, from going before to provide for his household. [Obs.]

Holding or held formerly in possession. [Obs.]

An instrument formerly used at sea for taking the altitudes of heavenly bodies, now superseded by the sextant; -- called also cross- staff. Brande & C.

Formerly vouched or avowed; affirmed in advance. [R.] Shak.

Formerly, the radical methyl, CH3.

In truth; in fact; certainly; very well; -- formerly used as an expression of deference or respect, especially to woman; now used ironically or contemptuously. A fit man, forsooth, to govern a realm! Hayward. Our old English word forsooth has been changed for the French madam. Guardian.

person whose views and opinions are extremely antiquated; one whose sympathies are with a former time rather than with the present. [Colloq.]

A name formerly given in New England to the Spanish half real, a silver coin worth six and a quarter cents.

re passages in the plug, by which the adjacent pipes or ports may be made to communicate; formerly used as a valve in the steam engine, and now for various other purposes. In the illustration, a leads to the upper end of a steam engine cylinder, and b to the lower end; c is the steam pipe, and d the exhaust pipe.…

A tribe of Indians which, with the Sacs, formerly occupied the region about Green Bay, Wisconsin; -- called also Outagamies. Fox and geese. (a) A boy's game, in which one boy tries to catch others as they run one goal to another. (b) A game with sixteen checkers, or some substitute for them, one of which is called the…

s Francolinus and allied genera, of Asia and Africa. The common species (F. vulgaris) was formerly common in southern Europe, but is now nearly restricted to Asia.

Free city, or Free town, a city or town independent in its government and franchises, as formerly those of the Hanseatic league. -- Free cost, freedom from charges or expenses. South. -- Free and easy, unconventional; unrestrained; regardless of formalities. [Colloq.] "Sal and her free and easy ways." W. Black. --…