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Disposed to solicit; eager to obtain something desirable, or to avoid anything evil; concerned; anxious; careful. "Solicitous of my reputation." Dryden. "He was solicitous for his advice." Calerendon. Enjoy the present, whatsoever it be, and be not solicitous about the future. Jer. Taylor. The colonel had been intent u…

The state of being solicitous; uneasiness of mind occasioned by fear of evil or desire good; anxiety. The many cares and great labors of worldly men, their solicitude and outward shows. Sir W. Raleigh. The mother looked at her with fond solicitude. G. W. Cable.

Divination by the assistance, or supposed assistance, of evil spirits, or the power of commanding evil spirits; magic; necromancy; witchcraft; enchantment. Adder's wisdom I have learned, To fence my ear against thy sorceries. Milton.

Severe; afflictive; distressing; as, a sore disease; sore evil or calamity. Shak.

or by diseappointment in the expectation of good; grief at having suffered or occasioned evil; regret; unhappiness; sadness. Milton. How great a sorrow suffereth now Arcite! Chaucer. The safe and general antidote against sorrow is employment. Rambler.

Grieved for the loss of some good; pained for some evil; feeling regret; -- now generally used to express light grief or affliction, but formerly often used to express deeper feeling. "I am sorry for my sins." Piers Plowman. Ye were made sorry after a godly manner. 2 Cor. vii. 9. I am sorry for thee, friend; 't is the…

Scripture as the special patron of the poor and the afficted. Atterbury. To this special evil an improvement of style would apply a special redress. De Quincey.

Of or pertaining to a specter; ghosty. He that feels timid at the spectral form of evil is not the man to spread light. F. W. Robertson.

Species; kind. [Obs.] The spices of penance ben three. Chaucer. Abstain you from all evil spice. Wyclif (1. Thess,v. 22). Justice, although it be but one entire virtue, yet is described in two kinds of spices. The one is named justice distributive, the other is called commutative. Sir T. Elyot.

A woman of evil life and character; -- so called from being forced to spin in a house of correction. [Obs.]

ter it had been slightly ibnjured." H. Spenser. "And saved me in spite of the world, the devil, and myself." South. "In spite of all applications, the patient grew worse every day." Arbuthnot. See Syn. under Notwithstanding. -- To owe one a spite, to entertain a mean hatred for him.

th a fiend," thus heard I say. Chaucer. He must have a long spoon that must eat with the devil. Shak.

all quantity, of water; hence, to cleanse; to purify. Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. Heb. x. 22.

Fig.: Something used to cover up a secret project; a mask; a pretense. Hypocrisy is the devil's stalking-horse under an affectation of simplicity and religion. L'Estrange. How much more abominable is it to make of him [Christ] and religion a stalking-horse, to get and enjoy the world! Bunyan.

e weep, he might not be stent. Chaucer. Yet n'ould she stent Her bitter railing and foul revilement. Spenser.

es for a stated price or compensation. His great stipendiary prelates came with troops of evil-appointed horseman not half full. Knolles.

s. or R.] Egypt is a long country, but it is straight, that is to say, narrow. Sir J. Mandeville.

war for deceiving the enemy; hence, in general, artifice; deceptive device; secret plot; evil machination. Fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils. Shak. Those oft are stratagems which error seem, Nor is it Homer nods, but we that dream. Pope.

rown, often doing great damage. (b) The crown borer (Tyloderma fragariæ), a small brown weevil whose larva burrows in the crown and kills the plant. -- Strawberry bush (Bot.), an American shrub (Euonymus Americanus), a kind of spindle tree having crimson pods and the seeds covered with a scarlet aril. -- Strawberry c…

Great labor; forcible effort to obtain an object, or to avert an evil. Macaulay.