Search the Dictionary

; deepness; perpendicular measurement downward from the surface,or horizontal measurement backward from the front; as, the depth of a river; the depth of a body of troops.

Disposal; power of disposal. [Obs.] They are entirely at our devotion, and may be turned backward and forward, as we please. Godwin.

er twenty-eight years the same letters return in the same order. The dominical letters go backwards one day every common year, and two every leap year; e. g., if the dominical letter of a common year be G, F will be the dominical letter for the next year. Called also Sunday letter. Cf. Solar cycle, under Cycle, n.…

One backward in book learning; a child or other person dull or weak in intellect; a dullard; a dolt. I never knew this town without dunces of figure. Swift.

and one or more solid concretions or otocysts. -- Rose ear (in dogs), an ear which folds backward and shows part of the inside. -- To give ear to, to listen to; to heed, as advice or one advising. "Give ear unto my song." Goldsmith. -- To have one's ear, to be listened to with favor. -- Up to the ears, deeply subme…

come among accidentally or unexpectedly. -- To fall astern (Naut.), to move or be driven backward; to be left behind; as, a ship falls astern by the force of a current, or when outsailed by another. -- To fall away. (a) To lose flesh; to become lean or emaciated; to pine. (b) To renounce or desert allegiance; to revo…

s are carried across a river, arm of the sea, etc., in a ferryboat. It can pass the ferry backward into light. Milton. To row me o'er the ferry. Campbell.

Seeming as if fettered, as the feet pf certain animals which bend backward, and appear unfit for walking.

To move as a wave; to roll hither and thither; to wave; to float backward and forward, as on waves; as, a fluctuating field of air. Blackmore.

d by the hand through a cord winding in reverse directions upon the spindle as it rotates backward and forward. Knight. -- Fly fishing, the act or art of angling with a bait of natural or artificial flies. Walton. -- Fly flap, an implement for killing flies. -- Fly governor, a governor for regulating the speed of an…

ward a part or place before or in front; onward; in advance; progressively; -- opposed to backward.

e rear wheel to run on free from the rear sprocket when the pedals are stopped or rotated backwards. Freewheelcycles are usually fitted with hub brakes or rim brakes, operated by back pedaling.

Auricula. See Bear's-ear. -- French fake (Naut.), a mode of coiling a rope by running it backward and forward in parallel bends, so that it may run freely. -- French honeysuckle (Bot.) a plant of the genus Hedysarum (H. coronarium); -- called also garland honeysuckle. -- French horn, a metallic wind instrument, cons…

From; away; back or backward; -- now used only in oppositionto the word to, in the phrase to and fro, that is, to and from. See To and fro under To. Millon.

Having the first and second toes turned backward, as in the trogons.

nus of marine decapod crustaceans, which burrow rapidly in the sand by pushing themselves backward; -- called also bait bug. See Illust. under Anomura.

ver belongeth unto the highest perfection of man. Hooker. Hither and thither, to and fro; backward and forward; in various directions. "Victory is like a traveller, and goeth hither and thither." Knolles.

r or after. He after honor hunts, I after love. Shak. To hunt counter, to trace the scent backward in hunting, as a hound to go back on one's steps. [Obs.] Shak.

A lateral and backward-projecting process on the dorsal side of a vertebra. -- Hy`per*ap`o*phys"i*al, a.

The act of inverting, or turning over or backward, or the state of being inverted.