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fice or position which requires or involves little or no responsibility, labor, or active service. A lucrative sinecure in the Excise. Macaulay.

ss; backward; not using due diligence or care; not earnest or eager; as, slack in duty or service. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness. 2 Pet. iii. 9.

her; one who is held as a chattel; one who has no freedom of action, but whose person and services are wholly under the control of another. thou our slave, Our captive, at the public mill our drudge Milton.

[Obs.] Our little girl Susan is a most admirable slut, and pleases us mightly, doing more service than both the others. Pepys.

r some painful situation. (b) (Mil.) Money allowed to soldiers or sailors, in the English service, for wounds and injures received; also, a sum paid by a recruit, previous to being sworn in, to procure his release from service. (c) (Law) Vindictive or exemplary damages; damages beyond a full compensation for the actual…

A breech-loading rifle formerly used in the British service; -- so called from the inventor.

A tenure of lands and tenements by a certain or determinate service; a tenure distinct from chivalry or knight's service, in which the obligations were uncertain. The service must be certain, in order to be denominated socage, as to hold by fealty and twenty shillings rent. [Written also soccage.]

One who is engaged in military service as an officer or a private; one who serves in an army; one of an organized body of combatants. I am a soldier and unapt to weep. Shak.

Military service. [Obs.] Sir P. Sidney.

The wild service tree (Pyrus torminalis) of Europe; also, the rowan tree.

One appointed for a special service or occasion. In special, specially; in particular. Chaucer.

olitics, one who makes or recognizes a demand for public office on the ground of partisan service; also, one who sanctions such a policy in appointments to the public service.

One who promises or distributes public offices and their emoluments as the price of services to a party or its leaders.

f a vessel. Mar. Dict. -- To spring a mast or spar (Naut.), to strain it so that it is unserviceable.

elay By rule of knighthood, I disdain and spurn. Shak. Domestics will pay a more cheerful service when they find themselves not spurned because fortune has laid them at their master's feet. Locke.

A detachment of vessels employed on any particular service or station, under the command of the senior officer; as, the North Atlantic Squadron. Totten. Flying squadron, a squadron of observation or practice, that cruises rapidly about from place to place. Ham. Nav. Encyc.

millions of the species. Burke. -- To stand in hand, to conduce to one's interest; to be serviceable or advantageous. -- To stand off. (a) To keep at a distance. (b) Not to comply. (c) To keep at a distance in friendship, social intercourse, or acquaintance. (d) To appear prominent; to have relief. "Picture is best w…

the way leading to sacred edifices or shrines, and which are visited in rotation, stated services being performed at each; -- called also Station of the cross. Fairholt. Station bill. (Naut.) Same as Quarter bill, under Quarter. -- Station house. (a) The house serving for the headquarters of the police assigned to a…

tute, n., 3, above. -- Statute labor, a definite amount of labor required for the public service in making roads, bridges, etc., as in certain English colonies. -- Statute merchant (Eng. Law), a bond of record pursuant to the stat. 13 Edw. I., acknowledged in form prescribed, on which, if not paid at the day, an exec…

Settled pay or compensation for services, whether paid daily, monthly, or annually.