Search the Dictionary

A portion of Great Britain originally under the supervision of an earl; a territorial division, usually identical with a county, but sometimes limited to a smaller district; as, Wiltshire, Yorkshire, Richmondshire, Hallamshire. An indefinite number of these hundreds make up a county or shire. Blackstone.…

A title originally conferred by the Mikado on the military governor of the eastern provinces of Japan. By gradual usurpation of power the Shoguns (known to foreigners as Tycoons) became finally the virtual rulers of Japan. The title was abolished in 1867. [Written variously, Shiogun, Shiogoon, etc.]…

generally wide, the long narrow, besides being generally diphthongic as well. Hence, originally short vowels can be lengthened and yet kept quite distinct from the original longs. H. Sweet. In short, in few words; in brief; briefly. -- The long and the short, the whole; a brief summing up. -- The shorts (Stock Exchan…

Originally, a brawling, turbulent, vexatious person of either sex, but now restricted in use to females; a brawler; a scold. A man . . . grudgeth that shrews [i. e., bad men] have prosperity, or else that good men have adversity. Chaucer. A man had got a shrew to his wife, and there could be no quiet in the house for h…

emperors, or the Indian rupee of 192 grains. Sicca rupee, an East Indian coin, valued nominally at about two shillings sterling, or fifty cents.

The Greek letter S, or s). It originally had the form of the English C.

er to the signet (Scots Law), a judicial officer who prepares warrants, writs, etc.; originally, a clerk in the office of the secretary of state.

A kind of linen cloth, originally made in Silesia, a province of Prussia.

A hot, dry, suffocating, dust-laden wind, that blows occasionally in Arabia, Syria, and neighboring countries, generated by the extreme heat of the parched deserts or sandy plains.

Individually; particularly; severally; as, to make men singly and personally good.

To suit one well or ill, as an act; to become; to befit; -- used impersonally. [Obs.] Chaucer.

can be certainly known; a universal doubter; a Pyrrhonist; hence, in modern usage, occasionally, a person who questions whether any truth or fact can be established on philosophical grounds; sometimes, a critical inquirer, in opposition to a dogmatist. All this criticism [of Hume] proceeds upon the erroneous hypothesis…

To make a difference; to signify; to matter; -- used impersonally. Spenser. What skills it, if a bag of stones or gold About thy neck do drown thee Herbert. It skills not talking of it. Sir W. Scott.

grave or serious demeanor toward the person or persons laughed at; that is, perhaps, originally, by hiding the face in the wide sleeves of former times. -- To pin, or hang, on the sleeve of, to be, or make, dependent upon.

fulva) with a mucilagenous and slightly aromatic inner bark which is sometimes used medicinally; also, the inner bark itself. (b) A malvaceous shrub (Fremontia Californica); -- so called on the Pacific coast.

les which become vesicles (first flat, subsequently umbilicated) and then pustules, and finally thick crusts which slough after a certain time, often leaving a pit, or scar.

To fall in or as snow; -- chiefly used impersonally; as, it snows; it snowed yesterday.

ry Leblanc process of soda manufacture; -- called also alkali waste. -- Soda water, originally, a beverage consisting of a weak solution of sodium bicarbonate, with some acid to cause effervescence; now, in common usage, a beverage consisting of water highly charged with carbon dioxide (carbonic acid). Fruit sirups, c…

indefinite quantity or number; as, some wine; some water; some persons. Used also pronominally; as, I have some. Some theoretical writers allege that there was a time when there was no such thing as society. Blackstone.

At times; at intervals; now and then;occasionally. It is good that we sometimes be contradicted. Jer. Taylor. Sometimes . . . sometimes, at certain times . . . at certain other times; as, sometimes he is earnest, sometimes he is frivolous.