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Caring supremely or unduly for one's self; regarding one's own comfort, advantage, etc., in disregard, or at the expense, of those of others. They judge of things according to their own private appetites and selfish passions. Cudworth. In that throng of selfish hearts untrue. Keble.

A piece of ground where seed is sown for producing plants for transplantation; a nursery; a seed plat. [Obs.] Mortimer. But if you draw them [seedling] only for the thinning of your seminary, prick them into some empty beds. Evelyn.

promote; to be sufficient for; to satisfy; as, to serve one's turn. Turn it into some advantage, by observing where it can serve another end. Jer. Taylor.

Useful office; advantage conferred; that which promotes interest or happiness; benefit; avail. The stork's plea, when taken in a net, was the service she did in picking up venomous creatures. L'Estrange.

Doing service; promoting happiness, interest, advantage, or any good; useful to any end; adapted to any good end use; beneficial; advantageous. "Serviceable to religion and learning". Atterbury. "Serviceable tools." Macaulay. I know thee well, a serviceable villain. Shak.

te and odor; to the hearing, piercing, shrill, as a sharp sound or voice; to the eye, instantaneously brilliant, dazzling, as a sharp flash.

s of birds composing the genus Chionis, and family Chionidæ, native of the islands of the Antarctic.seas.

s, sheer folly; sheer nonsense. "A sheer impossibility." De Quincey. It is not a sheer advantage to have several strings to one's bow. M. Arnold.

various senses of the transitive verb. The sixth age shifts Into the lean and slippered pantaloon. Shak. Here the Baillie shifted and fidgeted about in his seat. Sir W. Scott.

An Old World finch of the genus Minia, as the M. Malabarica of India, and M. cantans of Africa.

hrenus. -- Skin of the teeth, nothing, or next to nothing; the least possible hold or advantage. Job xix. 20. -- Skin wool, wool taken from dead sheep.

would he skip and play Pope. So she drew her mother away skipping, dancing, and frisking fantastically. Hawthorne.

To omit; to loose by negligence. And slip no advantage That my secure you. B. Jonson.

Any circumstance out of which money may be made or an advantage gained. [Slang] Snap back (Football), the act of snapping back the ball. -- Snap beetle, or Snap bug (Zoöl.), any beetle of the family Elateridæ, which, when laid on its back, is able to leap to a considerable height by means of a thoracic spring; -- call…

An instantaneous photograph made, usually with a hand camera, without formal posing of, and often without the foreknowledge of, the subject.

o does a thing prematurely or anticipates another in acting in order to gain an unfair advantage.

man, the so-called animal soul, that is, the seat of life, the sensitive affections and phantasy, exclusive of the voluntary and rational powers; -- sometimes, in distinction from the mind, the moral and emotional part of man's nature, the seat of feeling, in distinction from intellect; -- sometimes, the intellect only…

A stanza, verse, or phrase supposed to be endowed with magical power; an incantation; hence, any charm. Start not; her actions shall be holy as You hear my spell is lawful. Shak.

as the peculiar property of a successful party or faction, to be bestowed for its own advantage; -- commonly in the plural; as to the victor belong the spoils. From a principle of gratitude I adhered to the coalition; my vote was counted in the day of battle, but I was overlooked in the division of the spoil. Gibbon.…

Flitting leaves, the sport of every wind. Dryden. Never does man appear to greater disadvantage than when he is the sport of his own ungoverned pasions. John Clarke.