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Like a drone; indolent; slow. Burke. -- Dron"ish*ly, adv. -- Dron"ish*ness, n.

A member of a social and benevolent order, founded in London in 1781, and professedly based on the traditions of the ancient Druids. Lodges or groves of the society are established in other countries. Druid stones, a name given, in the south of England, to weatherworn, rough pillars of gray sandstone scattered over the…

ous exocarp, without valves, containing a nut or stone with a kernel. The exocarp is succulent in the plum, cherry, apricot, peach, etc.; dry and subcoriaceous in the almond; and fibrous in the cocoanut.

Of vegetable matter: Free from juices or sap; not succulent; not green; as, dry wood or hay.

In a dry manner; not succulently; without interest; without sympathy; coldly.

A variety of pear of large size and excellent flavor.

Not willing to speak; mute; silent; not speaking; not accompanied by words; as, dumb show. This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him. Shak. To pierce into the dumb past. J. C. Shairp.

Silent; mute; noiseless; as a dummy engine.

s nine Shall he dwindle, peak and pine. Shak. Religious societies, though begun with excellent intentions, are said to have dwindled into factious clubs. Swift.

The esculent tubers of the umbelliferous plants Bunium flexuosum and Carum Bulbocastanum.

Capable of being eaten; fit to be eaten; proper for food; esculent; edible. -- n.

A sudden burst or violent display; an outburst; as, an ebullition of anger or ill temper.

llium agreste (or Elaterium), the squirting cucumber. Its fruit, when ripe, bursts and violently ejects its seeds, together with a mucilaginous juice, from which elaterium, a powerful cathartic medicine, is prepared.

Selecting; choosing (what is true or excellent in doctrines, opinions, etc.) from various sources or systems; as, an eclectic philosopher.

Violent distraction of mind; violent emotion; excessive grief of anxiety; insanity; madness. [Obs.] That unmatched form and feature of blown youth Blasted with ecstasy. Shak. Our words will but increase his ecstasy. Marlowe.

r, or weak, verbs; also, of analogous participial adjectives from nouns; as, pigmented; talented.

Fit to be eaten as food; eatable; esculent; as, edible fishes. Bacon. -- n.

To slip or glide away; to pass away silently, as time; -- used chiefly in reference to time. Eight days elapsed; at length a pilgrim came. Hoole.

related species. It is extracted as a bitter, white, crystalline substance, which is a violent purgative.

e genus Gymnotus (G. electricus), from two to five feet in length, capable of giving a violent electric shock. See Gymnotus. -- Electrical fish (Zoöl.), any fish which has an electrical organ by means of which it can give an electrical shock. The best known kinds are the torpedo, the gymnotus, or electrical eel, and t…