Search the Dictionary

A series of muscular contractions due to sudden stretching of the muscle, -- a sign of certain neuropathies.

A gripping device, as for stretching wire, etc., consisting of two jaws so attached to a ring that they are closed by pulling on the ring.

oming above the ankle, and having the sides made in part of some elastic material which stretches to allow the boot to be drawn on and off. [U.S.] -- Congress water, a saline mineral water from the Congress spring at Saratoga, in the State of New York.

To attend; to accompany. [Obs.] Thou, wretched boy, that didst consort him here, Shalt with him hence. Shak.

To share. [Obs.] For, of all miserias, I hold that chief Wretched to be, when none coparts our grief. Webster (1661).

coshering, that is to say, by quartering himself on the old tentants of his family, who, wretched as was their own condition, could not refuse a portion of their pittance to one whom they still regarded as their rightful lord. Macaulay.

Destitute of courage; timid; cowardly. Fie, coward woman, and soft-hearted wretch. Shak.

A machine used in ropewalks to stretch the yarn.

; as, the crack of a falling house; the crack of thunder; the crack of a whip. Will the stretch out to the crack of doom Shak.

onding to that of the upper part of the instep, on which the upper leather of a boot is stretched to give it the requisite shape.

To stretch, as a crane stretches its neck; as, to crane the neck disdainfully. G. Eliot.

hich, crimps; as: (a) A curved board or frame over which the upper of a boot or shoe is stretched to the required shape. (b) A device for giving hair a wavy apperance. (c) A machine for crimping or ruffling textile fabrics.

. Same as Crosspiece. -- Cross bond, a form of bricklaying, in which the joints of one stretcher course come midway between those of the stretcher courses above and below, a course of headers and stretchers intervening. See Bond, n., 8. -- Cross breed. See in the Vocabulary. -- Cross breeding. See under Breeding. -…

A mean wretch; a base fellow; a poltroon; a scullion. "Away, base cullions." Shak.

over all the evil spirits of the deep, and is seen in various shapes warning the devoted wretch of death and woe. Smollett. Davy Jones's Locker, the ocean, or bottom of the ocean. -- Gone to Davy Jones's Locker, dead, and buried in the sea; thrown overboard.

o disgrace; as, vice degrades a man. O miserable mankind, to what fall Degraded, to what wretched state reserved! Milton. He pride . . . struggled hard against this degrading passion. Macaulay.

A squalid place of resort; a wretched dwelling place; a haunt; as, a den of vice. "Those squalid dens, which are the reproach of great capitals." Addison.

being deplored or lamented; lamentable; causing grief; hence, sad; calamitous; grievous; wretched; as, life's evils are deplorable. Individual sufferers are in a much more deplorable conditious than any others. Burke.

To unfold; to spread wide; to expand; to stretch out; to spread. The northern wind his wings did broad display. Spenser.

ispleases; cause of irritation or annoyance; offense; injury. Hast thou delight to see a wretched man Do outrage and displeasure to himself Shak.