FLORENTINE a.
saic, a mosaic of hard or semiprecious stones, often so chosen and arranged that their natural colors represent leaves, flowers, and the like, inlaid in a background, usually of black or white marble.
FLY n.
ackward and forward. Knight. -- Fly fishing, the act or art of angling with a bait of natural or artificial flies. Walton. -- Fly flap, an implement for killing flies. -- Fly governor, a governor for regulating the speed of an engine, etc., by the resistance of vanes revolving in the air. -- Fly honeysuckle (Bot.),…
FORCED a.
h force or great labor, or by extraordinary exertion; hurried; strained; produced by unnatural effort or pressure; as, a forced style; a forced laugh. Forced draught. See under Draught. -- Forced march (Mil.), a march of one or more days made with all possible speed. -- For"ced*ly, adv. -- For"ced*ness, n.…
FORCING n.
The art of raising plants, flowers, and fruits at an earlier season than the natural one, as in a hitbed or by the use of artificial heat. Forcing bed or pit, a plant bed having an under layer of fermenting manure, the fermentation yielding bottom heat for forcing plants; a hotbed. -- Forcing engine, a fire engine. -…
FORMIC a.
-- Formic acid, a colorless, mobile liquid, HCO.OH, of a sharp, acid taste, occurring naturally in ants, nettles, pine needles, etc., and produced artifically in many ways, as by the oxidation of methyl alcohol, by the reduction of carbonic acid or the destructive distillation of oxalic acid. It is the first member of…