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uctiveness; deficient in quality or contents; slender; scant; barren; bare; mean; -- used literally and figuratively; as, the lean harvest; a lean purse; a lean discourse; lean wages. "No lean wardrobe." Shak. Their lean and fiashy songs. Milton. What the land is, whether it be fat or lean. Num. xiii. 20. Out of my lea…

parting; a leaving; farewell; adieu; -- used chiefly in the phrase, to take leave, i. e., literally, to take permission to go. A double blessing is a'double grace; Occasion smiles upon a second leave. Shak. And Paul after this tarried there yet a good while, and then took his leave of the brethren. Acts xviii. 18. Fren…

That which accords with the letter; a mode of interpreting literally; adherence to the letter.

To be a mark upon; to designate; to indicate; -- used literally and figuratively; as, this monument marks the spot where Wolfe died; his courage and energy marked him for a leader.

to ansver; as, to meet one's expectations; the supply meets the demand. To meet half way, literally, to go half the distance between in order to meet (one); hence, figuratively, to yield or concede half of the difference in order to effect a compromise or reconciliation with.

Causing to melt; becoming melted; -- used literally or figuratively; as, a melting heat; a melting appeal; a melting mood. -- Melt"ing*ly, adv.

Translated literally.

Hence: To pledge, either literally or figuratively; to make subject to a claim or obligation. Mortgaging their lives to covetise. Spenser. I myself an mortgaged to thy will. Shak.

Name. Nom de guerre (, literally, war name; hence, a fictitious name, or one assumed for a time. -- Nom de plume (, literally, pen name; hence, a name assumed by an author as his or her signature.

is gathered, or to which accretion is made; the central or material portion; -- used both literally and figuratively. It must contain within itself a nucleus of truth. I. Taylor.

Literally, the head of an ox (emblem of cuckoldom); hence, a dolt; a blockhead. Dost make a mummer of me, oxhead Marston.

Literally, seeing everything; -- a term applied to eyeglasses or spectacles divided into two segments, the upper being designed for distant vision, the lower for vision of near objects.

A prefix signifying alongside of, beside, beyond, against, amiss; as parable, literally, a placing beside; paradox, that which is contrary to opinion; parachronism.

Of or pertaining to the foot, or to feet, literally or figuratively; specifically (Zoöl.), pertaining to the foot of a mollusk; as, the pedal ganglion.

y force; perfoliate, perforate; perspicuous, evident throughout or very evident; perplex, literally, to entangle very much.

Literally, the love of, including the search after, wisdom; in actual usage, the knowledge of phenomena as explained by, and resolved into, causes and reasons, powers and laws.

penetrate; to make a way into or through something, as a pointed instrument does; -- used literally and figuratively. And pierced to the skin, but bit no more. Spenser. She would not pierce further into his meaning. Sir P. Sidney.

the hemispheres of the cerebellum; the mesocephalon. See Brain. Pons asinorum. Etym: [L., literally, bridge of asses.] See Asses' bridge, under Ass.

Preponderating; outweighing; overbalancing; -- used literally and figuratively; as, a preponderant weight; of preponderant importance. -- Pre*pon"der*ant*ly, adv.

Literally, inflammation of the spine, but commonly applied to the rickets. See Rickets.