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Suicide, by slashing the abdomen, formerly practiced in Japan, and commanded by the government in the cases of disgraced officials; disembowelment; -- also written, but incorrectly, hari-kari. W. E. Griffis.

One who provides lodgings; especially, the officer of the English royal household who formerly preceded the court when traveling, to provide and prepare lodgings. Fuller.

A brass coin bearing the emblem of a harp, -- formerly current in Ireland. B. Jonson.

A large South African antelope (Alcelaphus caama), formerly much more abundant than it is now. The face and legs are marked with black, the rump with white. [Written also hartebeest, and hartebest.]

C.-- Spirits of hartshorn (Chem.), a solution of ammonia in water; -- so called because formerly obtained from hartshorn shavings by destructive distillation. Similar ammoniacal solutions from other sources have received the same name.

on the stems of wheat and other plants. -- Harvest queen, an image pepresenting Ceres, formerly carried about on the last day of harvest. Milton. -- Harvest spider. (Zoöl.) See Daddy longlegs.

Of or pertaining to Havana, the capital of the island of Cuba; as, an Havana cigar; -- formerly sometimes written Havannah. -- n.

nted wings. Many are of large size and grade into the eagles. Some, as the goshawk, were formerly trained like falcons. In a more general sense the word is not infrequently applied, also, to true falcons, as the sparrow hawk, pigeon hawk, duck hawk, and prairie hawk.

he furnace by the blast. -- Hearth money, Hearth penny Etym: [AS. heoredhpening], a tax formerly laid in England on hearths, each hearth (in all houses paying the church and poor rates) being taxed at two shillings; -- called also chimney money, etc. He had been importuned by the common people to relieve them from the…

a mode if motion, being in general a form of molecular disturbance or vibration. It was formerly supposed to be a subtile, imponderable fluid, to which was given the name caloric.

To impregnate with sulphureted hydrogen gas, formerly called hepatic gas. On the right . . . were two wells of hepatized water. Barrow.

An extensive division of Mammalia. It formerly included the Proboscidea, Hyracoidea, Perissodactyla, and Artiodactyla, but by later writers it is generally restricted to the two latter groups (Ungulata). They feed almost exclusively upon vegetation.

Formerly, a payment or tribute of arms or military accouterments, or the best beast, or chattel, due to the lord on the death of a tenant; in modern use, a customary tribute of goods or chattels to the lord of the fee, paid on the decease of a tenant. Blackstone. Bouvier. Heriot custom, a heriot depending on usage. --…

A heart-shaped bulbous root, about the size of a finger, brought from Turkey, formerly used as a cathartic.

European heron (Ardea cinerea) is remarkable for its directly ascending flight, and was formerly hunted with the larger falcons.

A tax formerly paid to the kings of England for every hide of land. [Written also hydage.]

nt Egyptian writing; a modified form of hieroglyphics, tending toward a cursive hand and formerly supposed to be the sacerdotal character, as the demotic was supposed to be that of the people. It was a false notion of the Greeks that of the three kinds of writing used by the Egyptians, two -- for that reason called hie…

steam at high pressure is used. It may be either a condensing or a noncondensing engine. Formerly the term was used only of the latter. See Steam engine.

Formerly, one of the four terms of the courts of common law in England, beginning on the eleventh of January and ending on the thirty-first of the same month, in each year; -- so called from the festival of St. Hilary, January 13th.

used as a pronominal adjective or adjective pronoun; as, tell John his papers are ready; formerly used also for its, but this use is now obsolete. No comfortable star did lend his light. Shak. Who can impress the forest, bid the tree Unfix his earth-bound root Shak.