Search the Dictionary

Like a grandmother in age or manner; kind; indulgent.

rominences which form on a raw surface (that of wounds or ulcers), and are the efficient agents in the process of healing.

kindness or joy; salutation at meeting; a compliment from one absent. Write to him . . . gentle adieus and greetings. Shak.

Narrow and unintelligent conventionalism. -- Grun"dy*ist, n.

from the seeds of Paullinia sorbilis, a woody climber of Brazil, used in making an astringent drink, and also in the cure of headache.

he fruit or berry is shaped like a pomegranate, but is much smaller. It is somewhat astringent, but makes a delicious jelly.

dress; appropriate indication or expression; garb; shape. As then the guise was for each gentle swain. Spenser. A . . . specter, in a far more terrific guise than any which ever yet have overpowered the imagination. Burke.

A body obtained from hemoglobin, by the action of reducing agents in the absence of oxygen.

A dark brown powder containing iron, prepared by the action of zinc dust as a reducing agent upon the coloring matter of the blood, used medicinally as a hematinic.

An agent; a servant, or laborer; a workman, trained or competent for special service or duty; a performer more or less skillful; as, a deck hand; a farm hand; an old hand at speaking. A dictionary containing a natural history requires too many hands, as well as too much time, ever to be hoped for. Locke. I was always r…

Dexterous; ready; apt; felicitous. One gentleman is happy at a reply, another excels in a in a rejoinder. Swift. Happy family, a collection of animals of different and hostile propensities living peaceably together in one cage. Used ironically of conventional alliances of persons who are in fact mutually repugnant. --…

e bare suspicion made it treason to harbor the person suspected. Bp. Burnet. Let not your gentle breast harbor one thought of outrage. Rowe.

With pressure; with urgency; hence, diligently; earnestly. And prayed so hard for mercy from the prince. Dryden. My father Is hard at study; pray now, rest yourself. Shak.

A very astringent shrub (Spiræa tomentosa), common in pastures. The Potentilla fruticosa in also called by this name.

A churl; a common man; a person, male or female, of low birth. [Obs.] He was a gentle harlot and a kind. Chaucer.

The quality or state of being harsh. O, she is Ten times more gentle than her father 's crabbed, And he's composed of harshness. Shak. 'Tis not enough no harshness gives offense, The sound must seem an echo to the sense. Pope.

Gentile; pagan; as, a heathen author. "The heathen philosopher." "All in gold, like heathen gods." Shak.

Without heed or care; inattentive; careless; thoughtless; unobservant. O, negligent and heedless discipline! Shak. The heedless lover does not know Whose eyes they are that wound him so. Waller. -- Heed"less*ly, adv. -- Heed"less*ness, n.

A nonplane curve whose tangents are all equally inclined to a given plane. The common helix is the curve formed by the thread of the ordinary screw. It is distinguished from the spiral, all the convolutions of which are in the plane.

A dog of hell; an agent of hell. A hellhound, that doth hunt us all to death. Shak.