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A learned man; a man acquainted with literature; -- chiefly used in the plural. Now we are to consider that our bright ideal of a literatus may chance to be maimed. De Quincey.

world that are ever hissing dispraise, Because their natures are little. Tennyson. Little chief. (Zoöl.) See Chief hare. -- Little finger, the fourth and smallest finger of the hand. -- Little go (Eng. Universities), a public examination about the middle of the course, which as less strict and important than the fina…

f soil; an earthy mixture of clay and sand, with organic matter to which its fertility is chiefly due. We wash a wall of loam; we labor in vain. Hooker.

The evil deity, the author of all calamities and mischief, answering to the African of the Persians.

Long duration of life; length of life. The instances of longevity are chiefly amongst the abstemious. Arbuthnot.

, on certain official persons; as, lord advocate, lord chamberlain, lord chancellor, lord chief justice, etc. [Eng.]

hemselves to the cause of education and the care of destitute orphans, their labors being chiefly confined to the Western United States.

; as, a sorry lot; a bad lot. I, this winter, met with a very large lot of English heads, chiefly of the reign of James I. Walpole.

Courtship; -- chiefly in the phrase to make love, i. e., to court, to woo, to solicit union in marriage. Demetrius . . . Made love to Nedar's daughter, Helena, And won her soul. Shak.

To please; -- chiefly used impersonally. [Obs.] " Sith it lyketh you." Chaucer.

A verse of the kind usually employed in lyric poetry; -- used chiefly in the plural. 4. pl.

Long slender tubes made of a paste chiefly of wheat flour, and used as an article of food; Italian or Genoese paste.

A small cake, composed chiefly of the white of eggs, almonds, and sugar.

A large silk-and-cotton kerchief, usually of bright colors, such as those often used by negroes for turbans.

riodically containing miscellaneous papers or compositions. Magazine dress, clothing made chiefly of woolen, without anything metallic about it, to be worn in a powder magazine. -- Magazine gun, a portable firearm, as a rifle, with a chamber carrying cartridges which are brought automatically into position for firing.…

A celebrated epic poem of the Hindoos. It is of great length, and is chiefly devoted to the history of a civil war between two dynasties of ancient India.

The chief or principal part; the main or most important thing. [Obs., except in special uses.] Resolved to rest upon the title of Lancaster as the main, and to use the other two . . . but as supporters. Bacon.

Principally; chiefly.

spring of a watch or clock or the spring in a gunlock which impels the hammer. Hence: The chief or most powerful motive; the efficient cause of action.

Principal; chief. [Obs.] Chaucer.