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compose, recite, or sing extemporaneously, especially in verse; to extemporize; also, to play upon an instrument, or to act, extemporaneously.

An old game played with four dice. In signified a doublet, or two dice alike; in-and-in, either two doubles, or the four dice alike.

e main design; an accidental or subordinate action or event. No person, no incident, in a play but must be of use to carry on the main design. Dryden.

Explanation; display. [Obs.] Bacon.

r natives of America. Sir T. Browne. In America, cotton, being indigenous, is cheap. Lion Playas.

An introduction or introductory scene, as to a play; a preface; a prologue. [Obs.] This is but an induction: I will dMassinger.

. Bk. of Com. Prayer. Science is too inestimable for expression by a money standard. Lyon Playfair.

or employ as an argument; to adduce; to allege; to offer. [Obs.] Full well hath Clifford played the orator, Inferring arguments of mighty force. Shak.

A suffix used to from present participles; as, singing, playing.

state or turn of being in; specifically, in cricket, baseball, etc.,the turn or time of a player or of a side at the bat; -- often in the pl. Hence: The turn or time of a person, or a party, in power; as, the Whigs went out, and the Democrats had their innings.

One who plays upon an instrument of music, as distinguished from a vocalist.

The act or manner of playing upon musical instruments; performance; as, his instrumentation is perfect.

A short act or piece between others, as in a play; an interlude; hence, intermediate employment or time. Chesterfield.

A short entertainment exhibited on the stage between the acts of a play, or between the play and the afterpiece, to relieve the tedium of waiting. Dreams are but interludes, which fancy makes When monarch reason sleeps. Dryden.

pleasing, sometimes a burlesque, character; an interlude introduced between the acts of a play or an opera.

Singing or playing in good tune or otherwise; as, her intonation was false.

f colors like those of the rainbow; the quality or state of being iridescent; a prismatic play of color; as, the iridescence of mother-of-pearl.

Having colors like the rainbow; exhibiting a play of changeable colors; nacreous; prismatic; as, iridescent glass.

An appearance resembling the rainbow; a prismatic play of colors. Tennyson.

Indicating equal auroral display; as, an isochasmic line.