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Apt to believe on slight evidence; easly imposed upon; unsuspecting. Landor. Eve, our credulous mother. Milton.

A poetic foot, composed of one short syllable between two long ones (-Bentley.

Relating to crime; -- opposed to civil; as, the criminal code. The officers and servants of the crown, violating the personal liberty, or other right of the subject . . . were in some cases liable to criminal process. Hallam. Criminal action (Law), an action or suit instituted to secure conviction and punishment for a…

A fallacious dilemma, mythically supposed to have been first used by a crocodile. Crocodile bird (Zoöl.), an African plover (Pluvianus ægypticus) which alights upon the crocodile and devours its insect parasites, even entering its open mouth (according to reliable writers) in pursuit of files, etc.; -- called also Nile…

A monument of rough stones composed of one or more large ones supported in a horizontal position upon others. They are found chiefly in countris inhabited by the ancient Celts, and are of a period anterior to the introduction of Christianity into these countries.

s. (Astron.) See under Southern. -- To do a thing on the cross, to act dishonestly; -- opposed to acting on the square. [Slang] -- To take up the cross, to bear troubles and afflictions with patience from love to Christ.

, C3H5.CO2H, of the ethylene, or acrylic acid series. It was so named because formerly supposed to exist in croton oil. Also, any acid metameric with crotonic acid proper.

A supposed alkaloid obtained from croton oil by boiling it with water and magnesia, since found to be merely a magnesia soap of the oil. Watts.

A vessel or melting pot, composed of some very refractory substance, as clay, graphite, platinum, and used for melting and calcining substances which require a strong degree of heat, as metals, ores, etc.

Disposed to give pain to others; willing or pleased to hurt, torment, or afflict; destitute of sympathetic kindness and pity; savage; inhuman; hard-hearted; merciless. Behold a people cometh from the north country; . . . they are cruel and have no mercy. Jer. vi. 22,23.

Often applied, especially in the plural, to parts which are supposed to resemble a pair of legs; as, the crura of the diaphragm, a pair of muscles attached to it; crura cerebri, two bundles of nerve fibers in the base of the brain, connecting the medulla and the forebrain.

The exterior portion of the earth, formerly universally supposed to inclose a molten interior.

d stars and the primum mobile (or outer circle of the heavens, which by its motion was supposed to carry round all those within it), in order to explain certain movements of the heavently bodies. -- Crystalline lens (Anat.), the capsular lenslike body in the eye, serving to focus the rays of light. It consists of rodl…

es readily through animal membranes, and generally is capable of being crystallized; -- opposed to colloid.

An organ of the Ctenophora, supposed to be sensory.

The body. In cuerpo, without full dress, so that the shape of the Body is exposed; hence, naked or uncovered. Exposed in cuerpo to their rage. Hudibras.

A person easily deceived, tricked, or imposed on; a mean dupe; a gull. I have learned that . . . I am not the first cully whom she has passed upon for a countess. Addison.

Composed of parts in a heap; forming a mass; agregated. "As for knowledge which man receiveth by teaching, it is cumulative, njt original." Bacon

rk of a South American vine (Gonolobus Condurango) of the Milkweed family. It has been supposed, but erroneously, to be a cure for cancer. [Written also condurango.]

A roof having a double slope, or composed, on each side, of two parts which have unequal inclination; a gambrel roof.