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To produce or urge as a reason, plea, or excuse; as, he refused to lend, alleging a resolution against lending.

Any combination or compound of metals fused together; a mixture of metals; for example, brass, which is an alloy of copper and zinc. But when mercury is one of the metals, the compound is called an amalgam.

The course of action or the thing offered in place of another. If this demand is refused the alternative is war. Lewis. With no alternative but death. Longfellow.

Encompassing on all sides; circumfused; investing. "Ambient air." Milton. "Ambient clouds." Pope.

ent by particularity of description, the use of epithets, etc., for rhetorical effect; diffuse narrative or description, or a dilating upon all the particulars of a subject. Exaggeration is a species of amplification. Brande & C. I shall summarily, without any amplification at all, show in what manner defects have been…

To speak largely or copiously; to be diffuse in argument or description; to dilate; to expatiate; -- often with on or upon. Watts. He must often enlarge and amplify upon the subject he handles. South.

A hydrocarbon radical, C5H11, of the paraffine series found in amyl alcohol or fusel oil, etc.

ss liquid with a peculiar cough-exciting odor and burning taste, the chief constituent of fusel oil. It is used as a source of amyl compounds, such as amyl acetate, amyl nitrite, etc.

A military mechanic, as a blacksmith, carpenter, etc.; also, one who prepares the shells, fuses, grenades, etc., in a military laboratory.

Affected by shame; abashed or confused by guilt, or a conviction or consciousness of some wrong action or impropriety. "I am ashamed to beg." Wyclif. All that forsake thee shall be ashamed. Jer. xvii. 13. I began to be ashamed of sitting idle. Johnson. Enough to make us ashamed of our species. Macaulay. An ashamed pers…

Rubbish or refuse consisting of broken rock containing little or no ore. Weale.

A form of Ambry, a closet; but confused with Almonry, as if a place for alms.

s in the Caucasus. It is distinct from the Urus of Cæsar, with which it has often been confused.

ging to, or resembling, the aurora (the dawn or the northern lights); rosy. Her cheeks suffused with an auroral blush. Longfellow.

Inarticulate speech; constant or confused murmur. The babble of our young children. Darwin. The babble of the stream. Tennyson.

Hence: A place or scene of noise and confusion; a confused mixture of sounds, as of voices or languages. That babel of strange heathen languages. Hammond. The grinding babel of the street. R. L. Stevenson.

Confused; Babel-like.

To move or go backward; as, the horse refuses to back.

te of chlorophyll, and are the smallest of microscopic organisms. They are very widely diffused in nature, and multiply with marvelous rapidity, both by fission and by spores. Certain species are active agents in fermentation, while others appear to be the cause of certain infectious diseases. See Bacillus.…

To miss intentionally; to avoid; to shun; to refuse; to let go by; to shirk. [Obs. or Obsolescent] By reason of the contagion then in London, we balked the Evelyn. Sick he is, and keeps his bed, and balks his meat. Bp. Hall. Nor doth he any creature balk, But lays on all he meeteth. Drayton.