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To run or rove to and fro. [Obs.] Bacon.

A roving hither and thither.

A rambling or ramble; a passage over bounds; an excursion. [Obs.] Howell.

Containing abuse, or serving as the instrument of abuse; vituperative; reproachful; scurrilous. "An abusive lampoon." Johnson.

Clouded; obscured. [R.]

Having a tendency to gather together, or to make collections. Taylor is eminently discursive, accumulative, and (to use one of his own words) agglomerative. Coleridge.

Counteracting scurvy. -- n.

The first appearance of a star or other luminary after having been invisible or obscured; -- opposed to occultation. Circle of perpetual apparition. See under Circle.

A scurfiness of the back part of the hind leg of a horse; -- also named rat-tails. White. Arrest of judgment (Law), the staying or stopping of a judgment, after verdict, for legal cause. The motion for this purpose is called a motion in arrest of judgment.

To make (a thing) certain to the mind; to free from obscurity, doubt, or change; to make sure of; to fix; to determine. [Archaic] The divine law . . . ascertaineth the truth. Hooker. The very deferring [of his execution] shall increase and ascertain the condemnation. Jer. Taylor. The ministry, in order to ascertain a m…

To stain; to obscure; to sully; to disgrace; to cloud with infamy. For so exceeding shone his glistring ray, That Phattaint. Spenser. Lest she with blame her honor should attaint. Spenser.

A place in obscurity or retirement, or out of sight. I fancy there was a background of grinding and waiting before Miss Torry could produce this highly finished . . . performance. Mrs. Alexander. A husband somewhere in the background. Thackeray.

n with total eclipses of the sun. Just before and after a total eclipse, the slender, unobscured crescent of the sun's disk appears momentarily like a row of bright spots resembling a string of beads. The phenomenon (first fully described by Francis Baily, 1774 -- 1844) is thought to be an effect of irradiation, and of…

To cause obscurity or dimness to; to dim; to cloud. If thou becloud the sunshine of thine eye. Quarles.

To make dim; to obscure or darken. Shak.

To involve in darkness; to shroud with the shades of night; to obscure. [Archaic] The clouds benight the sky. Garth.

To smirch or soil; to discolor; to obscure. Hence: To dishonor; to sully. Shak.

Using foul or scurrilous language; slanderous.

A person of stained or low character, esp. one who uses scurrilous language, or treats others with foul abuse; a scoundrel; a rough. A man whose manners and sentiments are decidedly below those of his class deserves to be called a blackguard. Macaulay.

In the manner of or resembling a blackguard; abusive; scurrilous; ruffianly.