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Webster’s Dictionary (1828)



86 words match “REEDING”

KINGBIRD n.
cking larger birds, even hawks and eagles, especially when they approach its nest in the breeding season. It is a typical tyrant flycatcher, taking various insects upon the wing. It is dark ash above, and blackish on the bead and tail. The quills and wing coverts are whitish at the edges. It is white beneath, with a wh…
LAND n.
of crabs which live much on the land, and resort to the water chiefly for the purpose of breeding. They are abundant in the West Indies and South America. Some of them grow to a large size. -- Land fish a fish on land; a person quite out of place.Shak. -- Land force, a military force serving on land, as distinguished…
LEVEL v.
accord; to agree; to suit. [Obs.] With such accommodation and besort As levels with her breeding. Shak.
LINE n.
ength; one twelfth of an inch. Hard lines, hard lot. C. Kingsley. [See Def. 18.] -- Line breeding (Stockbreeding), breeding by a certain family line of descent, especially in the selection of the dam or mother. -- Line conch (Zoöl.), a spiral marine shell (Fasciolaria distans), of Florida and the West Indies. It is ma…
LOWBRED a.
Bred, or like one bred, in a low condition of life; characteristic or indicative of such breeding; rude; impolite; vulgar; as, a lowbred fellow; a lowbred remark.
MENDEL'S LAW n.
mals and plants, discovered by Gregor J. Mendel (Austrian Augustinian abbot, 1822-84) in breeding experiments with peas. He showed that the height, color, and other characters depend on the presence of determinating factors behaving as units. In any given germ cell each of these is either present or absent. The followi…
MIGRATE v.
To pass periodically from one region or climate to another for feeding or breeding; -- said of certain birds, fishes, and quadrupeds.
NATURAL a.
ration of natural laws analogous, in its operation and results, to designed selection in breeding plants and animals, and resulting in the survival of the fittest. The theory of natural selection supposes that this has been brought about mainly by gradual changes of environment which have led to corresponding changes o…
NIDUS n.
A nest: a repository for the eggs of birds, insects, etc.; a breeding place; esp., the place or substance where parasites or the germs of a disease effect lodgment or are developed.
NURL v.
To cut with reeding or fluting on the edge of, as coins, the heads of screws, etc.; to knurl.
OYSTER n.
hey have a pearly interior, and are allied to the fresh-water mussels. -- Oyster bed, a breeding place for oysters; a place in a tidal river or other water on or near the seashore, where oysters are deposited to grow and fatten for market. See lst Scalp, n. -- Oyster catcher (Zoöl.), any one of several species of wad…
PAIR v.
To be joined in paris; to couple; to mate, as for breeding.
PALOLO; PALOLO WORM n.
e moon in October and November, they swarm in vast numbers at the surface of the sea for breeding, and are gathered and highly esteemed as food by the natives. An allied species inhabits the tropical Atlantic and swarms in June or July.
PENGUINERY n.
A breeding place, or rookery, of penguins.
PHENOLOGY n.
f the relations between climate and periodic biological phenomena, as the migrations and breeding of birds, the flowering and fruiting of plants, etc. -- Phe`no*log"ic*al (#), a. -- Phe`no*log"ic*al*ly, adv. -- Phe*nol"o*gist (#), n.
PIPA n.
The Surinam toad (Pipa Americana), noted for its peculiar breeding habits.
PREGNANT a.
Being with young, as a female; having conceived; great with young; breeding; teeming; gravid; preparing to bring forth.
QUALITY n.
ion. He had those qualities of horsemanship, dancing, and fencing which accompany a good breeding. Clarendon.
REDFIN n.
A small North American dace (Minnilus cornutus, or Notropis megalops). The male, in the breeding season, has bright red fins. Called also red dace, and shiner. Applied also to Notropis ardens, of the Mississippi valley.
REED n.
Same as Reeding. Egyptian reed (Bot.), the papyrus. -- Free reed (Mus.), a reed whose edges do not overlap the wind passage, -- used in the harmonium, concertina, etc. It is distinguished from the beating or striking reed of the organ and clarinet. -- Meadow reed grass (Bot.), the Glyceria aquatica, a tall grass foun…
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