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Character or construction of a thing as determining its external appearance; outward aspect; make; figure; form; guise; as, the shape of a tree; the shape of the head; an elegant shape. He beat me grievously, in the shape of a woman. Shak.

e breath alone, without voice, as certain consonants, such as p, k, t, f; surd; nonvocal; aspirated.

it, diluted, sweetened, and flavored in various ways; as, orange sherbet; lemon sherbet; raspberry sherbet, etc.

ne side the figure of a shield. [Obs.] Chaucer. Shield fern (Bot.), any fern of the genus Aspidium, in which the fructifications are covered with shield-shaped indusia; -- called also wood fern. See Illust. of Indusium.

Any small moth of the genus Aspidisca, whose larva makes a shieldlike covering for itself out of bits of leaves.

Limited in intellectual power or grasp; not comprehensive; narrow; not tenacious, as memory. Their own short understandings reach No farther than the present. Rowe.

by an act pushing, as with an oar a pole used by one in a boat; sometimes with off. He grasped the oar,shoved from shore. Garth.

Fig.: Aspect or part regarded as contrasted with some other; as, the bright side of poverty. By the side of, close at hand; near to. -- Exterior side. (Fort.) See Exterior, and Illust. of Ravelin. -- Interior side (Fort.), the line drawn from the center of one bastion to that of the next, or the line curtain produced…

The shops were, therefore, distinguished by painted signs, which gave a gay and grotesque aspect to the streets. Macaulay.

A word or phrase by which anything is likened, in one or more of its aspects, to something else; a similitude; a poetical or imaginative comparison. A good swift simile, but something currish. Shak.

y, adv. The flagitious profligacy of their lives, and the simoniacal arts by which they grasped at the popedom. J. S. Harford.

t danger; as, a sinister countenance. Bar sinister. (Her.) See under Bar, n. -- Sinister aspect (Astrol.), an appearance of two planets happening according to the succession of the signs, as Saturn in Aries, and Mars in the same degree of Gemini. -- Sinister base, Sinister chief. See under Escutcheon.…

To cast reflections on; to asperse. [Prov. Eng. & Scot.] Crose.

A clasp or brooch for a belt, or the like.

A delicate trailing plant (Myrsiphyllum asparagoides) much used for decoration. It is a native of the Cape of Good Hope.

pring, or one which closes with a snapping sound, as the catch of a bracelet, necklace, clasp of a book, etc.

A leguminous plant (Æschynomene aspera) growing in moist places in Southern India and the East Indies. Its pithlike stem is used for making hats, swimming-jackets, etc. [Written also solah, shola.]

sects is destitute of wings and has a powerful sting. The male is winged and resembles a wasp. Called also spider ant. -- Solitary bee (Zoöl.), any species of bee which does not form communities. -- Solitary sandpiper (Zoöl.), an American tattler (Totanus solitarius). -- Solitary snipe (Zoöl.), the great snipe. [Pro…

c., as compared with their cognates p, t, k, f, etc., which are called nonvocal, surd, or aspirate. -- n.

Obs. or corrupt forms of Asparagus.