Search the Dictionary

A metallic element, intermediate in value between silver and gold, occurring native or alloyed with other metals, also as the platinum arsenide (sperrylite). It is heavy tin-white metal which is ductile and malleable, but very infusible, and characterized by its resistance to strong chemical reagents. It is used for cr…

Action; use; employment; exercise; practice; as, fair play; sword play; a play of wit. "The next who comes in play." Dryden.

To employ diligently; to use steadily. Go ply thy needle; meddle not. Shak.

low wall, serving as a foundation, a substructure, or a terrace wall. It is especially employed by archæologists in two senses:

Pertaining to, or employed in, polygraphy; as, a polygraphic instrument.

Licentious painting or literature; especially, the painting anciently employed to decorate the walls of rooms devoted to bacchanalian orgies.

A messenger who goes from station; an express; especially, one who is employed by the government to carry letters and parcels regularly from one place to another; a letter carrier; a postman. In certain places there be always fresh posts, to carry that further which is brought unto them by the other. Abp. Abbot. I fear…

al. (a) The metal from which iron pots are made, different from common pig iron. (b) An alloy of copper with lead used for making large vessels for various purposes in the arts. Ure. (c) A kind of stained glass, the colors of which are incorporated with the melted glass in the pot. Knight. -- Pot plant (Bot.), either…

ine, a mine exploded by gunpowder. See Mine. -- Powder monkey (Naut.), a boy formerly employed on war vessels to carry powder; a powder boy. -- Powder post. See Dry rot, under Dry. -- Powder puff. See Puff, n.

The exercise of a faculty; the employment of strength; the exercise of any kind of control; influence; dominion; sway; command; government. Power is no blessing in itself but when it is employed to protect the innocent. Swift.

To make use of; to employ. [Obs.] In malice to this good knight's wife, I practiced Ubaldo and Ricardo to corrupt her. Massinger.

ecatory words (Law), words of recommendation, request, entreaty, wish, or expectation, employed in wills, as distinguished from express directions; -- in some cases creating a trust. Jarman.

Previous caution or care; caution previously employed to prevent mischief or secure good; as, his life was saved by precaution. They [ancient philosophers] treasured up their supposed discoveries with miserable precaution. J. H. Newman.

vent or hinder by necessary consequence or implication; to deter action of, access to, employment of, etc.; to render ineffectual; to obviate by anticipation. This much will obviate and preclude the objections. Bentley.

o send before the time, or beforehand; hence, to cause to be before something else; to employ previously. [Obs.] The premised flames of the last day. Shak. If venesection and a cathartic be premised. E. Darwin.

A word employed to connect a noun or a pronoun, in an adjectival or adverbial sense, with some other word; a particle used with a noun or pronoun (in English always in the objective case) to make a phrase limiting some other word; -- so called because usually placed before the word with which it is phrased; as, a bridg…

e, printed publications, taken collectively, more especially newspapers or the persons employed in writing for them; as, a free press is a blessing, a licentious press is a curse.

One who employs another to act for him, -- as distinguished from an agent. Wharton. Bouvier. Burrill.

gled with linseed or nut oil, made thick by boiling and burning. Other ingredients are employed for the finer qualities. Ure. -- Printing office, a place where books, pamphlets, or newspapers, etc., are printed. -- Printing paper, paper used in the printing of books, pamphlets, newspapers, and the like, as distinguis…

A tool employed by blacksmiths for punching or enlarging the nail holes in a horseshoe.