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drags down his life. Tennyson. There is not a more melancholy object in the learned world than a man who has written himself down. Addison. The French . . . shone down [i. e., outshone] the English. Shak.

earch of water, ore, etc. Adams had the reputation of having dowsed successfully for more than a hundred wells. Eng. Cyc.

indrance; to hold back. A propeller is said to drag when the sails urge the vessel faster than the revolutions of the screw can propel her. Russell.

hibit a picture of human life, or to depict a series of grave or humorous actions of more than ordinary interest, tending toward some striking result. It is commonly designed to be spoken and represented by actors on the stage. A divine pastoral drama in the Song of Solomon. Milton.

A hole bored through a tenon nearer to the shoulder than the holes through the cheeks are to the edge or abutment against which the shoulder is to rest, so that a pin or bolt, when driven into it, will draw these parts together. Weale.

rrible; as, a dreadful storm. " Dreadful gloom." Milton. For all things are less dreadful than they seem. Wordsworth.

p, in small successive quantities; in repeated portions. "Made to taste drop by drop more than the bitterness of death." Burke. -- Drop curtain. See Drop, n.,

A linen (or sometimes cotton) fabric, finer and lighter than canvas, -- used for the lighter sails of vessels, the sacking of beds, and sometimes for men's clothing.

ble. To employ him on the hardest and most imperative duty. Hallam. Duty is a graver term than obligation. A duty hardly exists to do trivial things; but there may be an obligation to do them. C. J. Smith.

erin absorbed by some inert, porous solid, as infusorial earth, sawdust, etc. It is safer than nitroglycerin, being less liable to explosion from moderate shocks, or from spontaneous decomposition.

Greek poets, as also in Plautus, we shall see the economy . . . of poems better observed than in Terence. B. Jonson. The Jews already had a Sabbath, which, as citizens and subjects of that economy, they were obliged to keep. Paley.

He which hath the sharp sword with two edges. Rev. ii. 12. Slander, Whose edge is sharper than the sword. Shak.

Reality; actual meaning; fact, as distinguished from mere appearance. No other in effect than what it seems. Denham.

ut, literally or figuratively. Wash me with that precious effusion, and I shall be whiter than sow. Eikon Basilike. The light effusions of a heedless boy. Byron.

The number greater by a unit than seven; eight units or objects.

The number greater by a unit than seventeen; eighteen units or objects.

A tincture with more than one base; a compound tincture or medicine, composed of various substances, held in solution by alcohol in some form.

Hence, any delightful place. An Elysian more pure and bright than that pf the Greeks. I. Taylor.

o impress specially upon his audience. The province of emphasis is so much more important than accent, that the customary seat of the latter is changed, when the claims of emphasis require it. E. Porter.

the jurisdiction and dominion of an emperor (rarely of a king), usually of greater extent than a kingdom, always comprising a variety in the nationality of, or the forms of administration in, constituent and subordinate portions; as, the Austrian empire. Empire carries with it the idea of a vast and complicated governm…