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Ludicrous representation; exaggerated parody; grotesque satire. Burlesque is therefore of two kinds; the first represents mean persons in the accouterments of heroes, the other describes great persons acting and speaking like the basest among the people. Addison.

, the bowl so displaced being said to be burned. -- To burn daylight, to light candles before it is dark; to waste time; to perform superfluous actions. Shak. -- To burn one's fingers, to get one's self into unexpected trouble, as by interfering the concerns of others, speculation, etc. -- To burn out, to destroy or…

ece of metal, formed from a sheet by punching; a small washer put on the end of a rivet before it is swaged down.

A thicket, or place abounding in trees or shrubs; a wild forest.

orter time; constant employment; regular occupation; as, the business of life; business before pleasure. Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business Luke ii. 49.

; to occupy; as, to busy one's self with books. Be it thy course to busy giddy minds With foreign quarrels. Shak.

ike by thrusting the head forward, as an ox or a ram. [See Butt, n.] A snow-white steer before thine altar led, Butts with his threatening brows. Dryden.

nd g (in go); its original value being the latter. In Anglo-Saxon words, or Old English before the Norman Conquest, it always has the sound of k. The Latin C was the same letter as the Greek got it from the Phoenicians. The English name of C is from the Latin name ce, and was derived, probably, through the French. Etym…

A forest composed of stunted trees and thorny bushes, found in areas of small rainfall in Brazil.

s of interpretation for ascertaining these occult meanings. The cabalists pretend even to foretell events by this means.

er, especially a letter or missive emanating from the sovereign; -- much used in France before the Revolution as an arbitrary order of imprisonment.

A cadenza, or closing embellishment; a pause before the end of a strain, which the performer may fill with a flight of fancy. Imperfect cadence. (Mus.) See under Imperfect.

A parenthetic flourish or flight of ornament in the course of a piece, commonly just before the final cadence.

d to the Pope in 1891 by P. P. Cahensly, a member of the German parliament, to divide the foreign-born population of the United States, for ecclesiastical purposes, according to European nationalities, and to appoint bishops and priests of like race and speaking the same language as the majority of the members of a dio…

ematical or astrological computations the time, circumstances, or other conditions of; to forecast or compute the character or consequences of; as, to calculate or cast one's nativity. A cunning man did calculate my birth. Shak.

Adapted by calculation, contrivance. or forethought to accomplish a purpose; as, to use arts calculated to deceive the people.

Given to contrivance or forethought; forecasting; scheming; as, a cool calculating disposition. Calculating machine, a machine for the mechanical performance of mathematical operations, for the most part invented by Charles Babbage and G. and E. Scheutz. It computes logarithmic and other mathematical tables of a high d…

bring into action or discussion; to demand the consideration of; as, to call up a bill before a legislative body.

The new formation over the end of a cutting, before it puts out rootlets.

ess; quiet; serenity. The wind ceased, and there was a great calm. Mark. iv. 39. A calm before a storm is commonly a peace of a man's own making. South.