JUKE v.
A pseudonym used to designate the descendants of two sisters, the "Jukes" sisters, whose husbands were sons of a backwoodsman of Dutch descent. They lived in the State of New York, and their history was investigated by R. L. Dugdale as an example of the inheritance of criminal and immoral tendencies, disease, and paupe…
KEEP n.
, especially during a siege; the donjon. See Illust. of Castle. The prison strong, Within whose keep the captive knights were laid. Dryden. The lower chambers of those gloomy keeps. Hallam. I think . . . the keep, or principal part of a castle, was so called because the lord and his domestic circle kept, abode, or live…
KEEPER n.
Keeper of the privy seal (styled also lord privy seal), a high officer of state, through whose hands pass all charters, pardons, etc., before they come to the great seal. He is a privy councillor, and was formerly called clerk of the privy seal. [Eng.] - - Keeper of a magnet, a piece of iron which connects the two pol…
KEY n.
A family of tones whose regular members are called diatonic tones, and named key tone (or tonic) or one (or eight), mediant or three, dominant or five, subdominant or four, submediant or six, supertonic or two, and subtonic or seven. Chromatic tones are temporary members of a key, under such names as " sharp four," "fl…
KNIGHT n.
Order of the Bath. See under Bath, and Companion. Knights of labor, a secret organization whose professed purpose is to secure and maintain the rights of workingmen as respects their relations to their employers. [U. S.] -- Knights of Pythias, a secret order, founded in Washington, d.C., in 1864, for social and charita…