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g a time when one is not strictly attentive to business or affairs, or is absent from his post, and, hence, a time when affairs are not urgent; as, he took an off day for fishing: an off year in politics. "In the off season." Thackeray. Off side. (a) The right hand side in driving; the farther side. See Gee. (b) (Crick…

The state or posture of one who offends or makes attack; aggressive attitude; the act of the attacking party; -- opposed to defensive. To act on the offensive, to be the attacking party.

d by God himself; as, the office of a priest under the old dispensation, and that of the apostles in the new. Inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office. Rom. xi. 13.

r who, on a given day, has charge for that day of the quard, prisoners, and police of the post or camp. -- Officer of the deck, or Officer of the watch (Naut.), the officer temporarily in charge on the deck of a vessel, esp. a war vessel.

The principal opercular bone in the upper and posterior part of the gill cover.

The middle of the posterior, or dorsal, margin of the great foramen of the skull.

applied especially to vertebræ in which the anterior end of the centrum is convex and the posterior concave.

A division of serpents which have some of the posterior maxillary teeth grooved for fangs.

Having the pulmonary sac situated posteriorly; -- said of certain air-breathing Mollusca.

The inferior and posterior of the three elements forming the periotic bone.

. (Opt.) (a) A line drawn through the center of the eye perpendicular to its anterior and posterior surfaces. In a normal eye it is in the direction of the optic axis that objects are most distinctly seen. (b) The line in a doubly refracting crystal, in the direction of which no double refraction occurs. A uniaxial cry…

Specifically, a morbid condition in which respiration can be performed only in an erect posture; by extension, any difficulty of breathing.

in any vicious or offensive particular. "It out-Herods Herod." Shak. Out-Heroding the preposterous fashions of the times. Sir W. Scott.

To go beyond in performance; to excel; to surpass. An imposture outdoes the original. L' Estrange. I grieve to be outdone by Gay. Swift.

th off; as, to pack a boy off to school. He . . . must not die Till George be packed with post horse up to heaven. Shak.

day, the day for mailing letters to go by packet; or the sailing day. -- Packet note or post. See under Paper.

(Bridge Building), the arrangement, side by side, of several parts, as bars, diagonals, a post, etc., on a pin at the bottom of a chord. Waddell. -- Packing box, a stuffing box. See under Stuffing. -- Packing press, a powerful press for baling cotton, wool, hay, etc. -- Packing ring. See Packing, 2 (c), and Illust.…

The posterior nares. See Nares.

The act or practice of driving piles or posts into the ground to make it firm. [R.] Sir H. Wotton.

by the mantle. -- Pallial sinus (Zoöl.), an inward bending of the pallial line, near the posterior end of certain bivalve shells, to receive the siphon. See Illust. of Bivalve.