INTERPRET v.
ain or tell the meaning of; to expound; to translate orally into intelligible or familiar language or terms; to decipher; to define; -- applied esp. to language, but also to dreams, signs, conduct, mysteries, etc.; as, to interpret the Hebrew language to an Englishman; to interpret an Indian speech. Emmanuel, which bei…
INVEIGH v.
To declaim or rail (against some person or thing); to utter censorious and bitter language; to attack with harsh criticism or reproach, either spoken or written; to use invectives; -- with against; as, to inveigh against character, conduct, manners, customs, morals, a law, an abuse. All men inveighed against him; all m…
IONIC a.
spiral volutes. See Illust. of Capital. Ionic dialect (Gr. Gram.), a dialect of the Greek language, used in Ionia. The Homeric poems are written in what is designated old Ionic, as distinguished from new Ionic, or Attic, the dialect of all cultivated Greeks in the period of Athenian prosperity and glory. -- Ionic foot…
ITALIC a.
cated to the States of Italy by the inventor, Aldus Manutius, about the year 1500. Italic languages, the group or family of languages of ancient Italy. -- Italic order (Arch.), the composite order. See Composite. -- Italic school, a term given to the Pythagorean and Eleatic philosophers, from the country where their…
IVORY n.
Teeth; as, to show one's ivories. [Slang] Ivory black. See under Black, n. -- Ivory gull (Zoöl.), a white Arctic gull (Larus eburneus). -- Ivory nut (Bot.), the nut of a species of palm, the Phytephas macroarpa, often as large as a hen's egg. When young the seed contains a fluid, which gradually hardness into a whiti…
JAIL n.
e house of liberty. Milton. Jail bird, a prisoner; one who has been confined in prison. [Slang] - - Jail delivery, the release of prisoners from jail, either legally or by violence. -- Jail delivery commission. See under Gaol. -- Jail fever (Med.), typhus fever, or a disease resembling it, generated in jails and othe…
JAUNDICE n.
ces, constipation, uneasiness in the region of the stomach, loss of appetite, and general languor and lassitude. It is caused usually by obstruction of the biliary passages and consequent damming up, in the liver, of the bile, which is then absorbed into the blood. Blue jaundice. See Cyanopathy.