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inistrative skill rather than by science or literature, although they were adept potters, weavers, and goldsmiths, and preserved by the aid of the mnemonic quipu a body of legendary lore in part written down since the introduction of writing.

ument consisting of a woodmen bar, with a row of upright pegs set in it, used by domestic weavers to keep the warp of a proper width, and prevent tangling when it is wound upon the beam of the loom.

To separate or undo the texture of; to take apart; to untwist; to unweave or unknit; -- often followed by out; as, to ravel a twist; to ravel out a sticking. Sleep, that knits up the raveled sleave of care. Shak.

A South African weaver bird (Philetærus socius). These weaver birds build many nests together, under a large rooflike shelter, which they make of straw. Red republican. See under Red.

rapid or sudden motion; to cast with the hand; to hurl; to discharge; to emit. An honest weaver as ever shot shuttle. Beau & Fl. A pit into which the dead carts had nightly shot corpses by scores. Macaulay.

A weaver's reed; a sley.

To separate, as threads; to divide, as a collection of threads; to sley; -- a weaver's term.

To sley, or prepare for use in the weaver's sley, or slaie. Shak.

A weaver's reed. [Spelt also slaie.]

No longer hostile; friendly. [Obs.] Beau & Fl. Sociable bird, or Sociable weaver (Zoöl.), a weaver bird which builds composite nests. See Republican, n., 3. (b).

A stocking weaver.

The African rufous-necked weaver bird (Hyphantornis texor).

To unite or knit together confusedly; to interweave or interlock, as threads, so as to make it difficult to unravel the knot; to entangle; to ravel.

. Milton. Others, apart far in the grassy dale, Or roughening waste, their humble texture weave. Thomson.

; -- sometimes applied to the whole class of operations by which silk is prepared for the weaver. Tomlinson. To throw away. (a) To lose by neglect or folly; to spend in vain; to bestow without a compensation; as, to throw away time; to throw away money. (b) To reject; as, to throw away a good book, or a good offer. --…

One of the ends of weaver's threads; hence, any soft, short threads or tufts resembling these.

To form tissue of; to interweave. Covered with cloth of gold tissued upon blue. Bacon.

A weaver's cutting instrument; for severing the loops of the pile threads of velvet.

A weaver's knife. See Trevat. Knight. Trivet table, a table supported by three legs. Dryden.

To weave, as cloth, so as to produce the appearance of diagonal lines or ribs on the surface.