Search the Dictionary

An imaginary good-natured spirit, who was supposed often to perform important services around the house by night, such as thrashing, churning, sweeping. [Scot.]

y be two or more kinds in a single colony. The zooecia usually have a wreath of tentacles around the mouth, and a well developed stomach and intestinal canal; but these parts are lacking in the other zooids (Avicularia, Ooecia, etc.).

A small circular or oval wooden block without sheaves, having a groove around it and a hole through it, used for connecting rigging.

Idle talk; silly prattle. There is a buzz and cackle all around regarding the sermon. Thackeray.

An interwoven or latticed wall or inclosure; latticework, rails, or crossbars, as around the bar of a court of justice, between the chancel and the have of a church, or in a window.

A groove in any cylinder; specif., a groove around the cylinder of an elongated bullet for small arms to contain a lubricant, or around the rotating band of a gun projectile to lessen the resistance offered to the rifling. Also, a groove around the base of a cartridge, where the extractor takes hold. --Can"ne*lured (#)…

r raising heavy weights or exerting great power by traction upon a rope or cable, passing around the drum. It is operated either by steam power or by a number of men walking around the capstan, each pushing on the end of a lever fixed in its socket. [Sometimes spelt Capstern, but improperly.] Capstan bar, one of the lo…

An inclosing frame; esp. the framework around a door or a window. See Case, n., 4.

To turn the head of a vessel around from the wind in getting under weigh. Weigh anchor, cast to starboard. Totten.

To move the castle to the square next to king, and then the king around the castle to the square next beyond it, for the purpose of covering the king.

within a sinking made for the purpose, so no part of it projects beyond the plain surface around.

A principal or important point of concentration; the nucleus around which things are gathered or to which they tend; an object of attention, action, or force; as, a center of attaction.

A kind of annelid larva with a circle of cilia around the head.

An ornamental bordering or framelike decoration around the sides and top of a door, window, or fireplace. The top piece is called the traverse and the side pieces the ascendants.

t from the main front. Chancel aisle (Arch.), the aisle which passes on either side of or around the chancel. -- Chancel arch (Arch.), the arch which spans the main opening, leading to the chancel -- Chancel casement, the principal window in a chancel. Tennyson. -- Chancel table, the communion table.…

To give chase; to hunt; as, to chase around after a doctor. [Colloq.]

A tube usually of glass, placed around a flame, as of a lamp, to create a draft, and promote combustion.

A decorative construction around the opning of a fireplace.

hing to steady a cask or other body, or prevent it from moving, by fitting into the space around or beneath it.

ing cilia. In some species the cilia cover the body generally, in others they form a band around the mouth.