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To complicate or make intricate, as in grammatical structure. "Involved discourses." Locke.

me. Job xix. 19. He had had occasion, by one very inward with him, to know in part the discourse of his life. Sir P. Sidney.

To change a ship's course so as to cause a shifting of the boom. See Jibe, v. t., and Gybe.

a structure are secured together. Coursing joint (Masonry), the mortar joint between two courses of bricks or stones. -- Fish joint, Miter joint, Universal joint, etc. See under Fish, Miter, etc. -- Joint bolt, a bolt for fastening two pieces, as of wood, one endwise to the other, having a nut embedded in one of the…

lower or later standing; specifically, in American colleges, one in the third year of his course, one in the fourth or final year being designated a senior; in some seminaries, one in the first year, in others, one in the second year, of a three years' course.

To continue in, as a course or mode of action; not to intermit or fall from; to hold to; to maintain; as, to keep silence; to keep one's word; to keep possession. Both day and night did we keep company. Shak. Within this portal as I kept my watch. Smollett.

The water course of a street; a little canal or channel; a gutter; also, a puddle. Bp. Hall.

Natural inclination; natural course. [Obs.] Milton.

Sexual intercourse; -- usually preceded by carnal; as, carnal knowledge.

To set down after conveying; to cause to fall, alight, or reach; to bring to the end of a course; as, he landed the quoit near the stake; to be thrown from a horse and landed in the mud; to land one in difficulties or mistakes.

Crossing the line of a ship's course in a favorable direction; -- said of the wind when it is abeam, or between the beam and the quarter. At large. (a) Without restraint or confinement; as, to go at large; to be left at large. (b) Diffusely; fully; in the full extent; as, to discourse on a subject at large. -- Common…

, or unauthorized by, law; illegal; as, a lawless claim. He needs no indirect nor lawless course. Shak.

o. (a) To besiege; to encompass with an army. (b) To beset pertinaciously. -- To lay the course (Naut.), to sail toward the port intended without jibing. -- To lay the land (Naut.), to cause it to disappear below the horizon, by sailing away from it. -- To lay to (a) To charge upon; to impute. (b) To apply with vigo…

That which is laid; a stratum; a bed; one thickness, course, or fold laid over another; as, a layer of clay or of sand in the earth; a layer of bricks, or of plaster; the layers of an onion.

To guide or conduct in a certain course, or to a certain place or end, by making the way known; to show the way, esp. by going with or going in advance of. Hence, figuratively: To direct; to counsel; to instruct; as, to lead a traveler; to lead a pupil. The Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead t…

panies the reappearance of a certain person, situation, abstract idea, or allusion in the course of the play; a sort of musical label. -- Leading note (Mus.), the seventh note or tone in the ascending major scale; the sensible note. -- Leading question, a question so framed as to guide the person questioned in making…

ions, parties, or persons, for the accomplishment of a purpose which requires a continued course of action, as for mutual defense, or for furtherance of commercial, religious, or political interests, etc. And let there be 'Twixt us and them no league, nor amity. Denham.

; mean; -- used literally and figuratively; as, the lean harvest; a lean purse; a lean discourse; lean wages. "No lean wardrobe." Shak. Their lean and fiashy songs. Milton. What the land is, whether it be fat or lean. Num. xiii. 20. Out of my lean and low ability I'll lend you something. Shak.

A thong of leather, or a long cord, by which a falconer holds his hawk, or a courser his dog. Even like a fawning greyhound in the leash. Shak.

A discourse on any subject; especially, a formal or methodical discourse, intended for instruction; sometimes, a familiar discourse, in contrast with a sermon.