Search the Dictionary

An order of birds which formerly included all the waders. By later writers it is usually restricted to the sandpipers, plovers, and allied forms; -- called also Grallatores.

A word formerly used to express thankfulness, with surprise; many thanks. Gramercy, Mammon, said the gentle knight. Spenser.

th two rings, and a central connecting rod, in order to be used as a charge for a cannon. Formerly grapeshot were inclosed in canvas bags.

cles, grass, etc., and pay it over with pitch; -- so called because graves or greaves was formerly used for this purpose.

-- Gray whale (Zoöl.), a rather large and swift California whale (Rhachianectes glaucus), formerly taken in large numbers in the bays; -- called also grayback, devilfish, and hardhead.

One of several swimming birds or divers, of the genus Colymbus (formerly Podiceps), aud allied genera, found in the northern parts of America, Europe, and Asia. They have strong, sharp bills, and lobate toes.

A board or court of justice formerly held in the counting house of the British sovereign's household, composed of the lord steward and his officers, and having cognizance of matters of justice in the household, with power to correct offenders and keep the peace within the verge of the palace, which extends two hundred…

A name formerly applied rather loosely to certain dark-colored igneous rocks, including diorite, diabase, etc.

A man recently married, or about to be married; a bridegroom. Dryden. Groom porter, formerly an officer in the English royal household, who attended to the furnishing of the king's lodgings and had certain privileges.

ennial herb (Veronica officinalis) with small blue flowers, common in Europe and America, formerly thought to have curative properties. -- Ground of the heavens (Astron.), the surface of any part of the celestial sphere upon which the stars may be regarded as projected. -- Ground hemlock (Bot.), the yew (Taxus baccat…

A spectator in the pit of a theater, which formerly was on the ground, and without floor or benches. No comic buffoon to make the groundlings laugh. Coleridge.

Formerly, a kind of beer or ale. [Eng.]

A tool with a hardened steel point, formerly used instead of a diamond for cutting glass.

The pin of iron fastened in the end of a wooden shaft or axle, on which it turns; formerly, any journal, or pivot, or bearing, as the pintle and eye of a hinge, but esp. the end journal of a horizontal.

A district on the west coast of Africa (formerly noted for its export of gold and slaves) after which the Guinea fowl, Guinea grass, Guinea peach, etc., are named.

peaking or acting; custom; fashion; manner; behavior; mien; mode; practice; -- often used formerly in such phrases as: at his own guise; that is, in his own fashion, to suit himself. Chaucer. The swain replied, "It never was our guise To slight the poor, or aught humane despise." Pope.

gwood. It is obtained as a yellow crystalline substance, C16H14O6, with a sweetish taste. Formerly called also hematin.

Formerly, a mercenary foot soldier in Hungary, now, a halberdier of a Hungarian noble, or an attendant in German or Hungarian courts. [Written also hayduck, heiduc, heiduck, and heyduk.]

Cleared passageway in a crowd; -- formerly an exclamation. [Obs.] "A hall! a hall!" B. Jonson.

That part of a gunlock which strikes the percussion cap, or firing pin; the cock; formerly, however, a piece of steel covering the pan of a flintlock musket and struck by the flint of the cock to ignite the priming.