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To preach or discourse to; to affect or influence by means of a sermon or of sermons. [R.] Which of us shall sing or sermonize the other fast asleep Landor.

or of a steam boiler, forming a case to contain the water and steam, often inclosing also flues and the furnace; the barrel of a cylindrical, or locomotive, boiler. -- Shell road, a road of which the surface or bed is made of shells, as oyster shells. -- Shell sand, minute fragments of shells constituting a considera…

Affecting unfavorably by the supposed influence of the stars; baleful. "Sideral blast." Milton.

To influence by singing; to lull by singing; as, to sing a child to sleep.

; injurious; evil; -- the left being usually regarded as the unlucky side; as, sinister influences. All the several ills that visit earth, Brought forth by night, with a sinister birth. B. Jonson.

an opening or channel through which anything flows; a source of supply. Each sluice of affluent fortune opened soon. Harte. This home familiarity . . . opens the sluices of sensibility. I. Taylor.

Being of slight consequence; feeble in influence or importance; unimportant; trivial; insignificant; as, a small fault; a small business.

Flowing or uttered without check, obstruction, or hesitation; not harsh; voluble; even; fluent. The only smooth poet of those times. Milton. Waller was smooth; but Dryden taught to join The varying verse, the full-resounding line. Pope. When sage Minerva rose, From her sweet lips smooth elocution flows. Gay.…

Specifically, the more cultivated portion of any community in its social relations and influences; those who mutually give receive formal entertainments. Society of Jesus. See Jesuit. -- Society verses Etym: [a translation of F. vers de société], the lightest kind of lyrical poetry; verses for the amusement of polite…

Easily yielding; susceptible to influence; flexible; gentle; kind. I would to God my heart were flint, like Edward's; Or Edward's soft and pitiful, like mine. Shak. The meek or soft shall inherit the earth. Tyndale.

the sun; proceeding from the sun; as, the solar system; solar light; solar rays; solar influence. See Solar system, below.

which essentially consists of allegory based upon ideas as to the sun's course, motion, influence, or the like.

A directive influence exercised by a mass of matter upon growing organs. Encyc. Brit.

ighest degree; effectual; controlling; as, a sovereign remedy. Dryden. Such a sovereign influence has this passion upon the regulation of the lives and actions of men. South. Sovereign state, a state which administers its own government, and is not dependent upon, or subject to, another power.

Exerting a peculiar influence over any part of the body; preventing or curing disease by a peculiar adaption, and not on general principles; as, quinine is a specific medicine in cases of malaria. In fact, all medicines will be found specific in the perfection of the science. Coleridge. Specific character (Nat. Hist.),…

ffects, as in photography. These, in the usual photogrophic methods, have their maximum influence at and beyond the violet rays, but are not limited to this region. -- Chromatic spectrum, the visible colored rays of the solar spectrum, exhibiting the seven principal colors in their order, and covering the central and…

To put under the influence of a spell; to affect by a spell; to bewitch; to fascinate; to charm. "Spelled with words of power." Dryden. He was much spelled with Eleanor Talbot. Sir G. Buck.

Circuit or range of action, knowledge, or influence; compass; province; employment; place of existence. To be called into a huge sphere, and not to be seen to move in 't. Shak. Taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity, and inclosing her in a sphere by herself. Hawthorne. Each in his hidden sphere of joy o…

Of or pertaining to the soul or its affections as influenced by the Spirit; controlled and inspired by the divine Spirit; proceeding from the Holy Spirit; pure; holy; divine; heavenly-minded; -- opposed to carnal. That I may impart unto you some spiritual gift. Rom. i. ll. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesu…

To refine intellectiually or morally; to purify from the corrupting influence of the world; to give a spiritual character or tendency to; as, to spiritualize soul. This seen in the clear air, and the whole spiritualized by endless recollections, fills the eye and the heart more forcibly than I can find words to say. Ca…