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To hinder from liberty of movement; to impede; to obstruct; as, business is embarrassed; public affairs are embarrassed.

A state of being embarrassed; perplexity; impediment to freedom of action; entanglement; hindrance; confusion or discomposure of mind, as from not knowing what to do or to say; disconcertedness. The embarrassment which inexperienced minds have often to express themselves upon paper. W. Irving. The embarrassments tom co…

stitute one of the great primary classes of plants, and included all palms, true lilies, grasses, rushes, orchids, the banana, pineapple, etc. See Exogen.

To become insnared or embarrassed; to be entrapped; to be worse off than before; asm to fall into error; to fall into difficulties.

land overflowed, or covered wholly or partially with water, but producing sedge, coarse grasses, or other aquatic plants; boggy land; moor; marsh. 'Mid reedy fens wide spread. Wordsworth.

A grass of the genus Festuca. Fescue grass (Bot.), a genus of grasses (Festuca) containing several species of importance in agriculture. Festuca ovina is sheep's fescue; F. elatior is meadow fescue.

ng, or consisting of, fibers; as, the fibrous coat of the cocoanut; the fibrous roots of grasses. -- Fi"brous*ness, n.

To make free; to set at liberty; to rid of that which confines, limits, embarrasses, oppresses, etc.; to release; to disengage; to clear; -- followed by from, and sometimes by off; as, to free a captive or a slave; to be freed of these inconveniences. Clarendon. Our land is from the rage of tigers freed. Dryden. Arise,…

gib, and the driving wedge,key, or cotter, used for tightening the strap which holds the brasses at the end of a connecting rod.

The bracteal covering of the flowers or seeds of grain and grasses; esp., an outer husk or bract of a spikelt. Gray.

One of the pelets or inner chaffy scales of the flowers or spikelets of grasses.

The fruit of certain grasses which furnish the chief food of man, as corn, wheat, rye, oats, etc., or the plants themselves; -- used collectively. Storehouses crammed with grain. Shak.

The name of several kinds of pasture grasses found in the Western United States, esp. the Bouteloua oligostachya.

Pertaining to, or resembling, the grasses; gramineous; as, graminaceous plants.

cause to endure excessive burdens or anxieties; -- sometimes followed by out. [Troops] harassed with a long and wearisome march. Bacon. Nature oppressed and harass'd out with care. Addison. Vext with lawyers and harass'd with debt. Tennyson.

The act of harassing, or state of being harassed; worry; annoyance; anxiety. Little harassments which I am led to suspect do occasionally molest the most fortunate. Ld. Lytton.

A name given to several different grasses, especially to the Roltböllia incurvata, and to the species of Ægilops, from one of which it is contended that wheat has been derived.

in the same spikelet neuter, and the other unisexual, whether male or female; -- said of grasses.

Freedom from that which pains, or harasses, as toil, care, grief, etc. [Obs.] I have ease, if it may not rather be called indolence. Bp. Hough.

x Tastes, not well joined, inelegant. Milton. It renders style often obscure, always embarrassed and inelegant. Blair.