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Syria, Chaldea, Persia, India, China, etc.; as, the riches of the East; the diamonds and pearls of the East; the kings of the East. The gorgeous East, with richest hand, Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold. Milton.

A mineral of a green color and pearly luster; a hydrous phosphate of copper.

with lace, or as with lace; to lace; to encircle; to enfold; hence, to entangle. Ropes of pearl her neck and breast enlace. P. Fletcher.

A plant whose flowers may be dried without losing their form or color, as the pearly everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea), the immortelle of the French, the cudweeds, etc.

bit of living as commensals in other animals. One species inhabits the gill cavity of the pearl oyster near Panama; another lives within an East Indian holothurian.

cavities of volcanic tufa, in smooth and shining globular and botryoidal masses, having a pearly luster; -- so called from Fiora, in Ischia.

t water, the highest quality or purest luster; -- said of gems, especially of diamond and pearls.

eady light; feeble, scattered rays of light; also, a gleam. Gloss of satin and glimmer of pearls. Tennyson.

Without a grasp; relaxed. From my graspless hand Drop friendship's precious pearls. Coleridge.

the genera Callipsittacus and Geopsittacus, which live mainly upon the ground. -- Ground pearl (Zoöl.), an insect of the family Coccidæ (Margarodes formicarum), found in ants' nests in the Bahamas, and having a shelly covering. They are strung like beads, and made into necklaces by the natives. -- Ground pig (Zoöl.),…

er shell (Zoöl.), any species of Malleus, a genus of marine bivalve shells, allied to the pearl oysters, having the wings narrow and elongated, so as to give them a hammer-shaped outline; -- called also hammer oyster. -- To bring to the hammer, to put up at auction.

, often occurring in amygdaloid, in foliated masses, and also in monoclinic crystals with pearly luster on the cleavage face. It is a hydrous silicate of alumina and lime.

o hold; to contain; to shut up; to inclose; as, the shell of a nut includes the kernel; a pearl is included in a shell.

culable or very great number. Glittering chains, embroidered richly o'er With infinite of pearls and finest gold. Fanshawe.

To lay within; hence, to insert, as pieces of pearl, iviry, choice woods, or the like, in a groundwork of some other material; to form an ornamental surface; to diversify or adorn with insertions. Look,how the floor of heaven Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold. Shak. But these things are . . . borrowed by the…

or state of being iridescent; a prismatic play of color; as, the iridescence of mother-of-pearl.

ews. Carlyle. -- Job's tears (Bot.), a kind of grass (Coix Lacryma), with hard, shining, pearly grains.

(Nephthys cæca), inhabiting the sandy shores of Europe and America. It is whitish, with a pearly luster, and grows to the length of eight or ten inches.

A large, pearly, spiral, marine shell (Turbo margaritaceus), from the Pacific Islands. It is used as an ornament.

Mother-of-pearl.