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To talk idly, carelessly, or with undue rapidity; to jabber; to prate. To tame a shrew, and charm her chattering tongue. Shak.

d by a wall, hedge, or fence of any kind; -- specifically, the precinct of a cathedral or abbey. Closes surrounded by the venerable abodes of deans and canons. Macaulay.

g a college, or chapter of canons (and, in the Church of England, a dean), as Westminster Abbey. (b) An association of churches, possessing common revenues and administered under the joint pastorate of several ministers; as, the Reformed (Dutch) Collegiate Church of New York.

clouds, Conspicious far. Milton. Conspicious by her veil and hood, Signing the cross, the abbess stood. Sir W. Scott.

An allowance of meat, drink, or clothing due from an abbey or other religious house for the sustenance of such of the king's servants as he may designate to receive it. [Written also corrody.]

ly two lines of verse that rhyme with each other. A sudden couplet rushes on your mind. Crabbe.

Crabbed; difficult, or perplexing. "Persius is crabby, because ancient." Marston.

osslike mark or symbol used instead of a signature by those unable to write. Five Kentish abbesses . . . .subscribed their names and crosses. Fuller.

Peevishness; malignity; frowardness; crabbedness; surliness. [Obs.] Shak.

ike or touch gently, as with a soft or moist substance; to tap; hence, to besmear with a dabber. A sore should . . . be wiped . . . only by dabbing it over with fine lint. S. Sharp.

A pad or ball of rags, covered over with canvas, for inking plates; a dabber.

l in narration; to enlarge; -- with on or upon. But still on their ancient joys dilate. Crabbe.

when it is broken. [Colloq.] Some folks are happy and easy in mind when their victim is stabbed and done for. Thackeray. -- To do withal, to help or prevent it. [Obs.] "I could not do withal." Shak. -- To do without, to get along without; to dispense with. -- To have done, to have made an end or conclusion; to have f…

A slaverer; a slabberer; an idiot; a fool. [Written also driveller.]

he ribs diverge somewhat like the rays of a fan, as in Henry VII.'s chapel in Westminster Abbey. It is peculiar to English Gothic. -- Fan wheel, the wheel of a fan blower. -- Fan window. Same as Fan light (above).

les, or which have the terminations usually found in such words; as, actress, songstress, abbess, executrix. There are but few true feminines in English. Latham.

The rabbet on the outer edge of a sash bar to hold the glass and the putty. Knight.

Crabbed; peevish. [Prov. Eng.]

To put off by trickery; to cheat. [Obs.] I have been fubbed off, and fubbed off, and fabbed off, from this day to that day. Shak.

To talk fast, or to talk without meaning; to prate; to jabber. Shak.