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reef. Reefing bowsprit, a bowsprit so rigged that it can easily be run in or shortened by sliding inboard, as in cutters.

A lid, stopper, or sliding plate, in a furnace, stove, etc., for regulating the admission of air to the fuel; also, an arrangement containing dampers or shutters, as in the floor or wall of a room or passage, or in a chimney, for admitting or excluding heated air, or for regulating ventilation.

A sliding or falling back, especially into a former bad state, either of body or morals; backsliding; the state of having fallen back. Alas! from what high hope to what relapse Unlooked for are we fallen! Milton.

To move, as a curved object may, along a surface by rotation without sliding; to revolve upon an axis; to turn over and over; as, a ball or wheel rolls on the earth; a body rolls on an inclined plane. And her foot, look you, is fixed upon a spherical stone, which rolls, and rolls, and rolls. Shak.

he curve traced by any point in the plane of a given curve when the latter rolls, without sliding, over another fixed curve. See Cycloid, and Epycycloid.

gate. French sash, a casement swinging on hinges; -- in distinction from a vertical sash sliding up and down.

A weighing apparatus with a sliding weight, resembling a steelyard.

fly for producing, when revolved, motion or pressure in the direction of its axis, by the sliding of the threads of the cylinder in the grooves between the threads of the perforation adapted to it, the former being distinguished as the external, or male screw, or, more usually the screw; the latter as the internal, or…

To become more or less completely divided, as a body under the action of forces, by the sliding of two contiguous parts relatively to each other in a direction parallel to their plane of contact.

A drag, or sliding piece of wood or iron, placed under the wheel of a loaded vehicle, to retard its motion in going down a hill.

The sliding thread holder in a sewing machine, which carries the lower thread through a loop of the upper thread, to make a lock stitch.

A long strip of wood, curved upwards in front, used on the foot for sliding.

as to form an inclined plane, as form a wagon to a door, along which anything is moved by sliding or rolling.

A small, light vehicle with runners, used, mostly by young persons, for sliding on snow or ice.

r partially polished surfaces of a fissure or seam, supposed to have been produced by the sliding of one surface on another.

The act of sliding; as, a slide on the ice.

One who, or that which, slides; especially, a sliding part of an instrument or machine.

To depart, withdraw, enter, appear, intrude, or escape as if by sliding; to go or come in a quiet, furtive manner; as, some errors slipped into the work. Thus one tradesman slips away, To give his partner fairer play. Prior. Thrice the flitting shadow slipped away. Dryden.

A board sliding in grooves.

A piece, usually a plate, applied to a sliding piece, to receive wear and afford a means of adjustment; -- also called shoe, and gib. Slipper animalcule (Zoöl.), a ciliated infusorian of the genus Paramecium. -- Slipper flower.(Bot.) Slipperwort. -- Slipper limpet, or Slipper shell (Zoöl.), a boat shell.…