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The rough, shaggy part of oak bark.

under the arm or shoulder, to support the lame or infirm in walking. I'll lean upon one crutch, and fight with the other. Shak. Rhyme is a crutch that lifts the weak alone. H. Smith.

Supported upon crutches.

See 4th Crowd.

To brutify; to imbrute. All the man embruted in the swine. Cawthorn.

A picture of fruit; decoration by representation of fruit. The cornices consist of frutages and festoons. Evelyn.

Somewhat shrubby in character; imperfectly shrubby, as the American species of Wistaria.

A plant having a woody, durable stem, but less than a tree; a shrub.

Full of shoots. [Obs.] Evelyn.

Pertaining to a shrub or shrubs; branching like a shrub; shrubby; shrublike; as, a fruticose stem. Gray.

Fruticose. [R.]

Like, or pertaining to, a small shrub. Gray.

See Grudge. [Obs.] Hudibras.

To degrade to the state of a brute; to make brutal. And mixed with bestial slime, This essence to incarnate and imbrute. Milton.

The act of imbruting, or the state of being imbruted. [R.] Brydges.

Not capable of being searched out; inscrutable. [Obs.] -- Im`per*scru"ta*ble*ness, n. [Obs.]

The quality or state of being inscrutable; inscrutableness.

lt to be explained or accounted for satisfactorily; obscure; incomprehensible; as, an inscrutable design or event. 'T is not in man To yield a reason for the will of Heaven Which is inscrutable. Beau. & Fl. Waiving a question so inscrutable as this. De Quincey.

The quality or state of being inscrutable; inscrutability.

In an inscrutable manner.