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ly a woman), especially a person who does something with skill or as an occupation; as in spinster (originally, a woman who spins), songster, baxter (= bakester), youngster.

hes of the genus Gasterosteus and allied genera. The back is armed with two or more sharp spines. They inhabit both salt and brackish water, and construct curious nests. Called also sticklebag, sharpling, and prickleback.

of a scorpion. The sting of a bee or wasp is a modified ovipositor. The caudal sting, or spine, of a sting ray is a modified dorsal fin ray. The term is sometimes applied to the fang of a serpent. See Illust. of Scorpion.

ays of the family Dasyatidæ, syn. Trygonidæ, having one or more large sharp barbed dorsal spines, on the whiplike tail, capable of inflicting severe wounds. Some species reach a large size, and some, esp., on the American Pacific coast, are very destructive to oysters.

ater weever fish (Trachinus draco), which is capable of inflicting severe wounds with the spinous rays of its dorsal fin. See Weever.

solution with strychnine, as a local anæsthetic, esp. by injection into the sheath of the spinal cord, producing anæsthesia below the point of introduction.

A band, plate, or loop of metal for clasping and holding timbers or parts of a machine. (b) (Naut.)

the plant. -- Strawberry bush (Bot.), an American shrub (Euonymus Americanus), a kind of spindle tree having crimson pods and the seeds covered with a scarlet aril. -- Strawberry crab (Zoöl.), a small European spider crab (Eurynome aspera); -- so called because the back is covered with pink tubercles. -- Strawberry…

nely woven. "A sotil [subtile] twine's thread." Chaucer. More subtile web Arachne can not spin. Spenser. I do distinguish plain Each subtile line of her immortal face. Sir J. Davies.

To refine; to spin into niceties; as, to subtilize arguments. Nor as yet have we subtilized ourselves into savages. Burke.

r fishes of the family Centrachidæ. They have a broad, compressed body, and strong dorsal spines. Among the common species of the Eastern United States are Lepomis gibbosus (called also bream, pondfish, pumpkin seed, and sunny), the blue sunfish, or dollardee (L. pallidus), and the long-eared sunfish (L. auritus). Seve…

dont fishes of the family Teuthidæ, or Acanthuridæ, which have one or two sharp lancelike spines on each side of the base of the tail. Called also surgeon fish, doctor fish, lancet fish, and sea surgeon. Surgeon apothecary, one who unites the practice of surgery with that of the apothecary. Dunglison. -- Surgeon denti…

ated, and form a long, rigid, swordlike beak; the dorsal fin is high and without distinct spines; the ventral fins are absent. The adult is destitute of teeth. It becomes sixteen feet or more long.

An order of fishes, resembling the Physoclisti, without spines in the dorsal, anal, and ventral fins. It includes the true flying fishes.

The central canal of the spinal cord. B. G. Wilder.

A division of monotremes which comprises the spiny ant-eaters of Australia and New Guinea. See Illust. under Echidna.

post (Ropemaking), a board, frame, or post, at the end of a ropewalk, for supporting the spindels, or whirls, for twisting the yarns.

cover themselves from the fire of the place, in advancing the lines of approach. -- Tail spindle, the spindle of the tailstock of a turning lathe; -- called also dead spindle. -- To turn tail, to run away; to flee. Would she turn tail to the heron, and fly quite out another way; but all was to return in a higher pitc…

The center in the spindle of a turning lathe.

The sliding block or support, in a lathe, which carries the dead spindle, or adjustable center. The headstock supports the live spindle.