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y himself off from some unpleasant engagement or some painful situation. (b) (Mil.) Money allowed to soldiers or sailors, in the English service, for wounds and injures received; also, a sum paid by a recruit, previous to being sworn in, to procure his release from service. (c) (Law) Vindictive or exemplary damages; da…

ll valve opening into the atmosphere from the cylinder or condenser of a steam engine, to allow the escape of air when the piston makes a stroke; -- so called from the noise made by its action.

To make sober. There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, And drinking largely sobers us again. Pope.

hich alleviates or compensates for suffering or loss; a compensation; esp., an additional allowance, as for injured feelings.

e's self; a discourse made by one in solitude to one's self; monologue. Lovers are always allowed the comfort of soliloquy. Spectator.

A heavy fall. [Prov. Eng.] Hallowell.

To sup or swallow. [Obs.] Wyclif.

spark. Wordsworth. Spark arrester, a contrivance to prevent the escape of sparks while it allows the passage of gas, -- chiefly used in the smokestack of a wood-burning locomotive. Called also spark consumer. [U.S.]

.ee under Grafting. -- To splice the main brace (Naut.), to give out, or drink, an extra allowance of spirits on occasion of special exposure to wet or cold, or to severe fatigue; hence, to take a dram.

kind of ancient armor formed of thin plates of metal, usually overlapping each other and allowing the limbs to move freely. -- Splint bone (Anat.), one of the rudimentary, splintlike metacarpal or metatarsal bones on either side of the cannon bone in the limbs of the horse and allied animals. -- Splint coal. See Spl…

An implement consisting of a small bowl (usually a shallow oval) with a handle, used especially in preparing or eating food. "Therefore behoveth him a full long spoon That shall eat with a fiend," thus heard I say. Chaucer. He must have a long spoon that must eat with the devil. Shak.

as something stiff or strong; to force or put by bending, as a beam into its sockets, and allowing it to straighten when in place; -- often with in, out, etc.; as, to spring in a slat or a bar.

for stamping ore. -- Stamp note, a stamped certificate from a customhouse officer, which allows goods to be received by the captain of a ship as freight. [Eng.] -- Stamp office, an office for the issue of stamps and the reception of stamp duties.

A flood gate by which water is accumulated, for floating a boat over a shallow part of a stream by its release. Knight.

lame. Do not Christians and Heathens, Jews and Gentiles, poets and philosophers, unite in allowing the starry influence Sir W. Scott.

ed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side. Ex. xvii. 12. Sallows and reeds . . . for vineyards useful found To stay thy vines. Dryden.

A frame on which a bed is laid; a bedstead. [R.] The genial bed, Sallow the feet, the borders, and the stead. Dryden.

Pertaining to, or obtained from, stearin or tallow; resembling tallow. Stearic acid (Chem.), a monobasic fatty acid, obtained in the form of white crystalline scales, soluble in alcohol and ether. It melts to an oily liquid at 69°C.C18H36O2, CH3.(CH2)16.COOH; sodium stearate, with sodium palmitate, is the main componen…

materially increases the hardness, or raises the melting point, of the fat, as in mutton tallow. Chemically, it is a compound of glyceryl with three molecules of stearic acid, and hence is technically called tristearin, or glyceryl tristearate.

A shallow rapid in a river; also, the current below a waterfall. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.] Patient anglers, standing all the day Near to some shallow stickle or deep bay. W. Browne.