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degree; an ancestor. Respecting your forefathers, you would have been taught to respect yourselves. Burke. Forefathers' Day, the anniversary of the day (December 21) on which the Pilgrim Fathers landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts (1620). On account of a mistake in reckoning the change from Old Style to New Style, it ha…

lars, could never get admittance into common use. Locke. Do forge a life-long trouble for ourselves. Tennyson.

ame from our father upon us, but the formality of it, the sting and the curse, is only by ourselves. Jer. Taylor. The formality of the vow lies in the promise made to God. Bp. Stillingfleet.

Near the beginning; preceeding; as, the former part of a discourse or argument.

To commit fornication; to have unlawful sexual intercourse.

Unlawful sexual intercourse on the part of an unmarried person; the act of such illicit sexual intercourse between a man and a woman as does not by law amount to adultery.

An unmarried person, male or female, who has criminal intercourse with the other sex; one guilty of fornication.

ming or occuring unexpectedly, or without any known cause; chance; as, the fortuitous concourse of atoms. It was from causes seemingly fortuitous . . . that all the mighty effects of the Reformation flowed. Robertson. So as to throw a glancing and fortuitous light upon the whole. Hazlitt.

That which comes as the result of an undertaking or of a course of action; good or ill success; especially, favorable issue; happy event; success; prosperity as reached partly by chance and partly by effort. Our equal crimes shall equal fortune give. Dryden. There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the fl…

The lowest and supporting part or member of a wall, including the base course (see Base course (a), under Base, n.) and footing courses; in a frame house, the whole substructure of masonry.

Four things of the same kind, esp. four horses; as, a chariot and four. All fours. See All fours, in the Vocabulary.

To turn sour; -- said of beer, etc., when it sours in fermenting.

a heart of that fine frame To pay this debt of love but to a brother. Shak. Put your discourse into some frame. Shak.

hted; laden; filled; stored; charged. A vessel of our country richly fraught. Shak. A discourse fraught with all the commending excellences oSouth. Enterprises fraught with world-wide benefits. I. Taylor.

sion; able to follow one's own impulses, desires, or inclinations; determining one's own course of action; not dependent; at liberty. That which has the power, or not the power, to operate, is that alone which is or is not free. Locke.

A crowd; a throng; a concourse. [Archaic.] Tennyson.

Addicted to any course of conduct; inclined to indulge in any practice; habitual; persistent. He has been loud and frequent in declaring himself hearty for the government. Swift.

ruitless attempt; a fruitless controversy. They in mutual accusation spent The fruitless hours. Milton.

rts for voices and instruments are given. -- Full sea, high water. -- Full swing, free course; unrestrained liberty; "Leaving corrupt nature to . . . the full swing and freedom of its own extravagant actings." South (Colloq.) -- In full, at length; uncontracted; unabridged; written out in words, and not indicated by…

The course of action which peculiarly pertains to any public officer in church or state; the activity appropriate to any business or profession. Tradesmen . . . going about their functions. Shak. The malady which made him incapable of performing his regal functions. Macaulay.