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A kind of mirage by which distant objects appear inverted, distorted, displaced, or multiplied. It is noticed particularly at the Straits of Messina, between Calabria and Sicily.

to struggle; as, fate was, or the fates were, against him. A brave man struggling in the storms of fate. Pope. Sometimes an hour of Fate's serenest weather strikes through our changeful sky its coming beams. B. Taylor.

A male ancestor more remote than a parent; a progenitor; especially, a first ancestor; a founder of a race or family; -- in the plural, fathers, ancestors. David slept with his fathers. 1 Kings ii. 10. Abraham, who is the father of us all. Rom. iv. 16.

One's native land; the native land of one's fathers or ancestors.

To render light as a feather; to give wings to.[R.] The Polonian story perhaps may feather some tedions hours. Loveday.

In a feeble manner. The restored church . . . contended feebly, and with half a heart. Macaulay.

That which is feigned, invented, or imagined; especially, a feigned or invented story, whether oral or written. Hence: A story told in order to deceive; a fabrication; -- opposed to fact, or reality. The fiction of those golden apples kept by a dragon. Sir W. Raleigh. When it could no longer be denied that her flight h…

ertaining to, or characterized by, fiction; fictitious; romantic."Fictional rather than historical." Latham.

anything valuable; especially, a deposit, discovered by archæologists, of objects of prehistoric or unknown origin.

by rapidly twirling a wooden pin in a wooden socket; -- used by the Hindoos during all historic time, and by many savage peoples. -- Fire eater. (a) A juggler who pretends to eat fire. (b) A quarrelsome person who seeks affrays; a hotspur. [Colloq.] -- Fire engine, a portable forcing pump, usually on wheels, for thro…

Extravagant, like some stories about catching fish; improbable; also, rank or foul. [Colloq.]

n of defiance; the emblem of anarchists. -- To dip, the flag, to mlower it and quickly restore it to its place; -- done as a mark of respect. -- To hang out the white flag, to ask truce or quarter, or, in some cases, to manifest a friendly design by exhibiting a white flag. -- To hang the flag half-mast high or half…

The reheating of an article at the furnace aperture during manufacture to restore its plastic condition; esp., the reheating of a globe of crown glass to allow it to assume a flat shape as it is rotated.

A floor, loft, or story in a building; especially, a floor of a house, which forms a complete residence in itself.

A sudden burst or gust of wind of short duration. Snow, and hail, and stormy gust and flaw. Milton. Like flaws in summer laying lusty corn. Tennyson.

The small distortion of an astronomical instrument caused by the weight of its parts; the amount to be added or substracted from the observed readings of the instrument to correct them for this distortion. The flexure of a curve (Math.), the bending of a curve towards or from a straight line.

A Christian church or congregation; considered in their relation to the pastor, or minister in charge. As half amazed, half frighted all his flock. Tennyson.

of beams, girders, etc., with proper covering, which divides a building horizontally into stories. Floor in sense 1 is, then, the upper surface of floor in sense 2.

One who walks about in a large retail store as an overseer and director. [U.S.]

A kindof flyboat; a storeship. Armed en flûte ( (Nav.), partially armed.