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e allied to the gannets and cormorants, but have very long, slender, flexible necks, and sharp bills.

To strike, to hit, or to shut, with a sharp sound.

Sharp in reply; apt to speak angrily or testily; easily provoked; tart; peevish. The taunting address of a snappish missanthrope. Jeffrey. -- Snap"pish*ly, adv. -- Snap"pish*ness, n.

Active; brisk; nimble; quick; sharp. [Archaic or Prov. Eng. & Scot.] That horny-handed, snell, peremptory little man. Dr. J. Brown.

To check; to sneap; to sneb. [Obs.] Him would he snib sharply for the nones. Chaucer.

Quick; short; sharp; smart. Shak.

Sharp; piercing; cutting; -- applied to the wind. [Prov. Eng.]

, the sound of a drum; the sound of the human voice; a horrid sound; a charming sound; a sharp, high, or shrill sound. The warlike sound Of trumpets loud and clarions. Milton.

Having an acid or sharp, biting taste, like vinegar, and the juices of most unripe fruits; acid; tart. All sour things, as vinegar, provoke appetite. Bacon.

s went to span counter for French crowns." Shak. -- Span iron (Naut.), a special kind of harpoon, usually secured just below the gunwale of a whaleboat. -- Span roof, a common roof, having two slopes and one ridge, with eaves on both sides. Gwilt. -- Span shackle (Naut.), a large bolt driven through the forecastle d…

pon, used in war and hunting, by thrusting or throwing; a weapon with a long shaft and a sharp head or blade; a lance.

The chief harpooner, who also directs in cutting up the speck, or blubber; -- so called among whalers.

Resembling a dart; having sharp points.

To sharpen to a point. [R.] "With spiculated paling." Mason.

Having a sharp point, or sharp points; furnished or armed with spikes. Or by the spiky harrow cleared away. Dyer. The spiky wheels through heaps of carnage tore. Pope.

A sharp appendage to any of a plant; a thorn.

Having the tail quills ending in sharp, naked tips. Spine- tailed swift. (Zoöl.) See Spinetail (a).

A keyed instrument of music resembling a harpsichord, but smaller, with one string of brass or steel wire to each note, sounded by means of leather or quill plectrums or jacks. It was formerly much used. Dumb spinet. (Mus.) See Manichordon.

ricuspis, which often form dense, almost impassable growth, their leaves being stiff and sharp-pointed.

A young deer whose antlers begin to shoot or become sharp; a brocket, or pricket.