Search the Dictionary

To be careless, inattentive, or uncouncerned; not to be vigilant; to live thoughtlessly. We sleep over our happiness. Atterbury.

To pass out of one's thought as not being of any consequence. [Obs. or Colloq.] With good hope let he sorrow slide. Chaucer. With a calm carelessness letting everything slide. Sir P. Sidney.

mart Would leave a sting within a brother's heart Young. A sentence or two, . . . which I thought very smart. Addison.

Fig.: To rise in thought, spirits, or imagination; to be exalted in mood. Where the deep transported mind may soar. Milton. Valor soars above What the world calls misfortune. Addison.

Pertaining to, or involving, a solecism; incorrect. "He thought it made the language solecistical and absurd." Blackwall.

solemn earnestness. Nor wanting power to mitigate and swage With solemn touches troubled thoughts. Milton. There reigned a solemn silence over all. Spenser.

omewhat of his good sense will suffer, in this transfusion, and much of the beauty of his thoughts will be lost. Dryden.

in sound; high-sounding. The Italian opera, amidst all the meanness and familiarty of the thoughts, has something beautiful and sonorous in the expression. Addison. There is nothing of the artificial Johnsonian balance in his style. It is as often marked by a pregnant brevity as by a sonorous amplitude. E. Everett.…

Fig.: To ascertain, or try to ascertain, the thoughts, motives, and purposes of (a person); to examine; to try; to test; to probe. I was in jest, And by that offer meant to sound your breast. Dryden. I've sounded my Numidians man by man. Addison.

etter spared a better man. Shak. To spare one's self. (a) To act with reserve. [Obs.] Her thought that a lady should her spare. Chaucer.

To utter words or articulate sounds, as human beings; to express thoughts by words; as, the organs may be so obstructed that a man may not be able to speak. Till at the last spake in this manner. Chaucer. Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth. 1 Sam. iii. 9.

emplation; intellectual examination. Thenceforth to speculations high or deep I turned my thoughts. Milton.

The faculty of uttering articulate sounds or words; the faculty of expressing thoughts by words or articulate sounds; the power of speaking. There is none comparable to the variety of instructive expressions by speech, wherewith man alone is endowed for the communication of his thoughts. Holder.

A fit of immoderate laughter or merriment. [Obs.] Thy silly thought enforces my spleen. Shak.

; to taint; to disgrace; to tarnish, as reputation; to asperse. My virgin life no spotted thoughts shall stain. Sir P. Sidney. If ever I shall close these eyes but once, May I live spotted for my perjury. Beau. & Fl. To spot timber, to cut or chip it, in preparation for hewing.

ean perennial herb (Asperula cynanchica) with narrowly linear whorled leaves; -- formerly thought to cure the quinsy. Also called quincewort. Squinancy berries, black currants; -- so called because used to cure the quinsy. Dr. Prior.

k, or wand borne as an ensign of authority; a badge of office; as, a constable's staff. Methought this staff, mine office badge in court, Was broke in twain. Shak. All his officers brake their staves; but at their return new staves were delivered unto them. Hayward.

Of the color of stammel; having a red color, thought inferior to scarlet.

e matter be knotty, the mind must stop and buckle to it, and stick upon it with labor and thought." Locke.

Agitation of thoughts; conflicting passions.