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been spitting with rain. Dickens. To spit on or upon, to insult grossly; to treat with contempt. "Spitting upon all antiquity." South.

. [R.] Shak. In spite of, or Spite of, in opposition to all efforts of; in defiance or contempt of; notwithstanding. "Continuing, spite of pain, to use a knee after it had been slightly ibnjured." H. Spenser. "And saved me in spite of the world, the devil, and myself." South. "In spite of all applications, the patient…

Mock; mockery; contemptuous mirth; derision. Then make sport at me; then let me be your jest.Shak.

ing, At whose command we perish, and we spring Dryden. To spring at, to leap toward; to attempt to reach by a leap. -- To spring forth, to leap out; to rush out. -- To spring in, to rush in; to enter with a leap or in haste. -- To spring on or upon, to leap on; to rush on with haste or violence; to assault.…

To reject with disdain; to scorn to receive or accept; to treat with contempt. What safe and nicely I might well delay 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.…

o raise the shoulders so as to give them a square appearance, -- a movement expressing contempt or dislike. Sir W. Scott. -- To square the circle (Math.), to determine the exact contents of a circle in square measure. The solution of this famous problem is now generally admitted to be impossible.

A precise person; -- used contemptuously or jocularly. Thackeray.

Hence, something unripe or soft; -- used in contempt. "This squash, this gentleman." Shak.

aw; sometimes, one who has gained tribal rights by such a marriage; -- often a term of contempt. [Western U. S.]

r. (a) To side with; to espouse the cause of; to support; to maintain, or to profess or attempt to maintain; to defend. "I stand wholly for you." Shak. (b) To be in the place of; to be the substitute or to represent; as, a cipher at the left hand of a figure stands for nothing. "I will not trouble myself, whether these…

One who gazes at the stars; an astrologer; sometimes, in derision or contempt, an astronomer.

A fortune teller; an astrologer; -- used in contempt. B. Jonson.

ing or lowering heavy articles over the side. -- To miss stays (Naut.), to fail in the attempt to go about. Totten. -- Triatic stay (Naut.), a rope secured at the ends to the heads of the foremast and mainmast with thimbles spliced to its bight into which the stay tackles hook.

Needlework; -- in comtempt. Shak.

To cause to submit; to prostrate. [Obs.] Many of those whose states so tempt thine ears Are stooped by death; and many left alive. Chapman.

A violent assault on a fortified place; a furious attempt of troops to enter and take a fortified place by scaling the walls, forcing the gates, or the like.

An historian; -- in contempt. Swift.

one of our principal strengths. Sprat. Certainly there is not a greater strength against temptation. Jer. Taylor.

The extortion of money, or the attempt to extort money, by threat of injury; blackmailing. Strike block (Carp.), a plane shorter than a jointer, used for fitting a short joint. Moxon. -- Strike of flax, a handful that may be hackled at once. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.] Chaucer. -- Strike of sugar. (Sugar Making) (a) The act…

st; -- followed by against or with before the person or thing opposed; as, strive against temptation; strive for the truth. Chaucer. My Spirit shall not always strive with man. Gen. vi. 3. Why dost thou strive against him Job xxxiii. 13. Now private pity strove with public hate, Reason with rage, and eloquence with fat…