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A slight, superficial knowledge of something; sciolism. I had a great desire, not able to attain to a superficial skill in any, to have some smattering in all. Burton.

made, usually with a hand camera, without formal posing of, and often without the foreknowledge of, the subject.

tly, or without permission or ceremony; as, to snatch a loaf or a kiss. When half our knowledge we must snatch, not take. Pope.

tion from intellect; -- sometimes, the intellect only; the understanding; the seat of knowledge, as distinguished from feeling. In a more general sense, "an animating, separable, surviving entity, the vehicle of individual personal existence." Tylor. The eyes of our souls only then begin to see, when our bodily eyes ar…

Predominant; greatest; utmost; paramount. We acknowledge him [God] our sovereign good. Hooker.

" Chaucer. [Thou] thy Father's dreadful thunder didst not spare. Milton. He that hath knowledge, spareth his words. Prov. xvii. 27.

enly flame." Pope. We have here and there a little clear light, some sparks of bright knowledge. Locke. Bright gem instinct with music, vocal spark. Wordsworth. Spark arrester, a contrivance to prevent the escape of sparks while it allows the passage of gas, -- chiefly used in the smokestack of a wood-burning locomotiv…

Devotion to a particular and restricted part or branch of knowledge, art, or science; as, medical specialism.

ply to some specialty or limited object; to assign to a specific use; as, specialized knowledge.

sed, or which he makes an object of special attention; a speciality. Men of boundless knowledge, like Humbold, must have had once their specialty, their pet subject. C. Kingsley.

h letters, esp. with the proper letters, either orally or in writing. When what small knowledge was, in them did dwell, And he a god, who could but read or spell. Dryden.

Circuit or range of action, knowledge, or influence; compass; province; employment; place of existence. To be called into a huge sphere, and not to be seen to move in 't. Shak. Taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity, and inclosing her in a sphere by herself. Hawthorne. Each in his hidden sphere of joy o…

n leavening a larger quantity. -- To throw up the sponge, to give up a contest; to acknowledge defeat; -- from a custom of the prize ring, the person employed to sponge a pugilist between rounds throwing his sponge in the air in token of defeat. [Cant or Slang] "He was too brave a man to throw up the sponge to fate."…

Of or pertaining to a pledge or agreement; responsible. [R.] He is righteous even in that representative and sponsional person he put on. Abp. Leighton.

s as sport a fool do mischief. prov. x. 23. Her sports were such as carried riches of knowledge upon the stream of delight. Sir P. Sidney. Think it but a minute spent in sport. Shak.

To pawn; to pledge; as, spout a watch. [Cant]

awkward extension and motions of the limbs; to scramble in creeping. The birds were not fledged; but upon sprawling and struggling to get clear of the flame, down they tumbled. L'Estrange.

tened to the inside, the effect of which is to make the leaves of a book thus bound (as a ledger or other account or blank book) spring up and lie flat. -- Spring balance, a contrivance for measuring weight or force by the elasticity of a spiral spring of steel. -- Spring beam, a beam that supports the side of a padd…

Unfledged; unfeathered; as, a squab pigeon. King.

A young chicken before it is fully fledged. [Prov. Eng.]