SPAN n.
d topgallant-mast heads, for the studding-sail halyards. -- Span counter, an old English child's game, in which one throws a counter on the ground, and another tries to hit it with his counter, or to get his counter so near it that he can span the space between them, and touch both the counters. Halliwell. "Henry V.,…
STEP- n.
A prefix used before father, mother, brother, sister, son, daughter, child, etc., to indicate that the person thus spoken of is not a blood relative, but is a relative by the marriage of a parent; as, a stepmother to X is the wife of the father of X, married by him after the death of the mother of X. See Stepchild, Ste…
STRIDULOUS a.
dulous cart. Longfellow. Stridulous laryngitis (Med.), a form of croup, or laryngitis, in children, associated with dyspnoea, occurring usually at night, and marked by crowing or stridulous breathing.
STUNT v.
growing to the natural size; to prevent the growth of; to stint, to dwarf; as, to stunt a child; to stunt a plant. When, by a cold penury, I blast the abilities of a nation, and stunt the growth of its active energies, the ill or may do is beyond all calculation. Burke.