Search the Dictionary

A salutation and prayer to the Virgin Mary, as mother of God; -- used in the Roman Catholic church. To number Ave Maries on his beads. Shak.

Belonging to, or resembling, oats or the oat grasses.

To treat revengefully; to wreak vengeance on. [Obs.] Thy judgment in avenging thine enemies. Bp. Hall.

Longing eagerly for; eager; greedy. "Avid of gold, yet greedier of renown." Southey.

tate of another. The property in the part thus separated, or cut off, continues in the original owner. Wharton. Burrill.

Weary. [Poetic] "I begin to be aweary of thee." Shak.

Just drawn out of the ground, and hanging perpendicularly; atrip; -- said of the anchor. Totten.

Belonging to the axis of the body; as, the axial skeleton; or to the axis of any appendage or organ; as, the axial bones. Axial line (Magnetism), the line taken by the magnetic force in passing from one pole of a horseshoe magnet to the other. Faraday.

A straight line, real or imaginary, passing through a body, on which it revolves, or may be supposed to revolve; a line passing through a body or system around which the parts are symmetrically arranged.

, Lat. septem, Gr.ptan. The form of letter B is Roman, from Greek B (Beta), of Semitic origin. The small b was formed by gradual change from the capital B.

The doctrine of a modern religious sect, which originated in Persia in 1843, being a mixture of Mohammedan, Christian, Jewish and Parsee elements.

Pertaining to Babylon, or made there; as Babylonic garments,carpets, or hangings.

Bachelorhood; also, a manner or peculiarity belonging to bachelors. W. Irving.

er faces of a wall, or upon the haunches of an arch or vault. -- Back pressure. (Steam Engine) See under Pressure. -- Back rest, a guide attached to the slide rest of a lathe, and placed in contact with the work, to steady it in turning. -- Back slang, a kind of slang in which every word is written or pronounced bac…

A premature explosion in the cylinder of a gas or oil engine during the exhaust or the compression stroke, tending to drive the piston in a direction reverse to that in which it should travel; also, an explosion in the exhaust passages of such ah engine.

To have or experience a back fire or back fires; -- said of an internal-combustion engine.

Anything behind, serving as a foil; as, the statue had a background of red hangings.

A stitch made by setting the needle back of the end of the last stitch, and bringing it out in front of the end.

A microscopic vegetable organism, belonging to the class Algæ, usually in the form of a jointed rodlike filament, and found in putrefying organic infusions. Bacteria are destitute of chlorophyll, and are the smallest of microscopic organisms. They are very widely diffused in nature, and multiply with marvelous rapidity…

rite, or similar rude stone artificially shaped, held sacred or worshiped as of divine origin.