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A light blow with something flat. [U.S. & Prov. Eng.]

A kind of catchfly (Silene inflata) which is sometimes frothy from the action of captured insects.

An implement shaped like a knife, flat, thin, and somewhat flexible, used for spreading paints, fine plasters, drugs in compounding prescriptions, etc. Cf. Palette knife, under Palette.

nial American grasses (Uniola paniculata, and U. latifolia) having broad leaves and large flattened spikelets. -- Spike rush. (Bot.) See under Rush. -- Spike shell (Zoöl.), any pteropod of the genus Styliola having a slender conical shell. -- Spike team, three horses, or a horse and a yoke of oxen, harnessed togethe…

enus of cephalopods having a multilocular, internal, siphunculated shell in the form of a flat spiral, the coils of which are not in contact.

Displayed; spread out; turned outward; hence, flat; ungainly; as, splay shoulders. Sonwthing splay, something blunt-edged, unhandy, and infelicitous. M. Arnold.

A foot that is abnormally flattened and spread out; flat foot.

A flat muscle of the back of the neck.

era Ajaja and Platalea, and allied genera, in which the long bill is broadly expanded and flattened at the tip.

eaves of a book thus bound (as a ledger or other account or blank book) spring up and lie flat. -- Spring balance, a contrivance for measuring weight or force by the elasticity of a spiral spring of steel. -- Spring beam, a beam that supports the side of a paddle box. See Paddle beam, under Paddle, n. -- Spring beau…

To form with right angles and straight lines, or flat surfaces; as, to square mason's work.

To beat or press into pulp or a flat mass; to crush.

To bruise or make flat by a fall. [Obs.]

A heavy fall, as of something flat; hence, also, a crushing reply. [Colloq.] Hudibras.

A stick inserted upright in a lop, eye, or mortise, at the side or end of a cart, a flat car, or the like, to prevent goods from falling off.

sing; trite; common. Swift. Wit itself, if stale is less pleasing. Grew. How weary, stale flat, and unprofitable Seem to me all the uses of this world! Shak. Stale affidavit (Law), an affidavit held above a year. Craig. -- Stale demand (Law), a claim or demand which has not been pressed or demanded for a long time.…

To cause to cease; to put an end to. Stay your strife. Shak. For flattering planets seemed to say This child should ills of ages stay. Emerson.

, used in painting, marking, etc. The pattern is cut out of the plate, which is then laid flat on the surface to be marked, and the color brushed over it. Called also stencil plate.

An instrument consisting of small bars of wood, flat at the bottom and rounded at the top, and resting on the edges of a kind of open box. They are unequal in size, gradually increasing from the smallest to the largest, and are tuned to the diatonic scale. The tones are produced by striking the pieces of wood with hard…

A black or greenish black mineral occurring in foliated flates, also in velvety bronze-colored incrustations. It is a hydrous silicate of iron and alumina.