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A person employed in, or skilled in, diplomacy; a diplomat. In ability, Avaux had no superior among the numerous able diplomatics whom his country then possessed. Macaulay.

en including two pairs of sharp organs (mandibles and maxillæ) with which they pierce the skin of animals. They undergo a complete metamorphosis, their larvæ (called maggots) being usually without feet.

plate of some heavy material intended to be pitched or hurled as a trial of strength and skill.

nce (see Distance, n., 3); to leave far behind; to surpass greatly. He distanced the most skillful of his contemporaries. Milner.

One skilled in divinity; a theologian. "Poets were the first divines." Denham.

A teacher; one skilled in a profession, or branch of knowledge learned man. [Obs.] One of the doctors of Italy, Nicholas Macciavel. Bacon.

The act of evading by some skillful movement; a sudden starting aside; hence, an artful device to evade, deceive, or cheat; a cunning trick; an artifice. [Colloq.] Some, who have a taste for good living, have many harmless arts, by which they improve their banquet, and innocent dodges, if we may be permitted to use an…

n the back of the leaf, and to certain Batrachia, the ova of which become attached to the skin of the back of the parent, where they develop; dorsiparous.

The Eskimo curlew (Numenius borealis). See Curlew.

To fit in or connect strongly, skillfully, or nicely; to fit ingeniously or complexly. He put together a piece of joinery so crossly indented and whimsically dovetailed . . . that it was indeed a very curious show. Burke.

Fine, soft, hairy outgrowth from the skin or surface of animals or plants, not matted and fleecy like wool; esp.:

Also, a skid or shoe, for retarding the motion of a carriage wheel.

Asia. Five or six of the hind ribs, on each side, are prolonged and covered with weblike skin, forming a sort of wing. These prolongations aid them in making long leaps from tree to tree. Called also flying lizard.

A flat stone so thrown along the surface of water as to skip from point to point before it sinks; also, the sport of so throwing stones; -- sometimes called ducks and drakes. Internal earthquakes, that, not content with one throe, run along spasmodically, like boys playing at what is called drakestone. De Quincey.…

rm the act, or practice the art, of delineation; to sketch; to form figures or pictures. "Skill in drawing." Locke.

Attention to apparel, or skill in adjusting it. Men of pleasure, dress, and gallantry. Pope.

A coat with skirts behind only, as distinct from the frock coat, of which the skirts surround the body. It is worn on occasions of ceremony. The dress coat of officers of the United States army is a full-skirted frock coat.

n, consisting either of a hollow cylinder, over each end of which is stretched a piece of skin or vellum, to be beaten with a stick; or of a metallic hemisphere (kettledrum) with a single piece of skin to be so beaten; the common instrument for marking time in martial music; one of the pair of tympani in an orchestra,…

The parchment or skin stretched over one end of a drum.

A darkish color. Whose duck set off the whiteness of the skin. Dryden.