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A subdivision of the Devonian system of America; -- so named from Hamilton, Madison Co., New York. It includes the Marcellus, Hamilton, and Genesee epochs or groups. See the Chart of Geology.

n legionaries [of Rome] who had been the "massive iron hammers" of the whole earth. J. H. Newman. Atmospheric hammer, a dead-stroke hammer in which the spring is formed by confined air. -- Drop hammer, Face hammer, etc. See under Drop, Face, etc. -- Hammer fish. See Hammerhead. -- Hammer hardening, the process of ha…

from one person to another; as, to buy at first hand, that is, from the producer, or when new; at second hand, that is, when no longer in the producer's hand, or when not new.

To deal with; to make a business of. They that handle the law knew me not. Jer. ii. 8.

irst money received for the sale of goods in the morning, the first money taken at a shop newly opened, the first present sent to a young woman on her wedding day, etc. Their first good handsel of breath in this world. Fuller. Our present tears here, not our present laughter, Are but the handsels of our joys hereafter.…

and the whole congregation of Israel, in 165 b. c., to commemorate the dedication of the new altar set up at the purification of the temple of Jerusalem to replace the altar which had been polluted by Antiochus Epiphanes (1 Maccabees i. 58, iv. 59). The feast, which is mentioned in John x. 22, is held for eight days (…

A large and valuable food fish (Polyprion prognathus) of New Zealand. It sometimes weighs one hundred pounds or more.

A forerunner; a precursor; a messenger. I knew by these harbingers who were coming. Landor.

or more compactness; as, mortar hardens by drying. The deliberate judgment of those who knew him [A. Lincoln] has hardened into tradition. The Century.

ith on or upon. "Harpings upon old themes." W. Irving. Harping on what I am, Not what he knew I was. Shak. To harp on one string, to dwell upon one subject with disagreeable or wearisome persistence. [Collog.]

Wild; giddy; flighty; rash; thoughtless. [Colloq.] They had a quarrel with Sir Thomas Newcome's own son, a harum-scarum lad. Thackeray.

process of hardening the face of steel, as armor plates, invented by Hayward A. Harvey of New Jersey, consisting in the additional carburizing of the face of a piece of low carbon steel by subjecting it to the action of carbon under long-continued pressure at a very high heat, and then to a violent chilling, as by a sp…

A new mixture of old matter; a second preparation or exhibition. I can not bear elections, and still less the hash of them over again in a first session. Walpole.

A New Zealand lizard, which, in anatomical character, differs widely from all other existing lizards. It is the only living representative of the order Rhynchocephala, of which many Mesozoic fossil species are known; -- called also Sphenodon, and Tuatera.

oiling, used as food for cattle, etc. -- Hay tedder, a machine for spreading and turning newmown hay. See Tedder.

high heaven's King. Spenser. It is a knell That summons thee to heaven or to hell. Shak. New thoughts of God, new hopes of Heaven. Keble.

accomplish; hence, grievous, afflictive; as, heavy yokes, expenses, undertakings, trials, news, etc. The hand of the Lord was heavy upon them of Ashdod. 1 Sam. v. 6. The king himself hath a heavy reckoning to make. Shak. Sent hither to impart the heavy news. Wordsworth. Trust him not in matter of heavy consequence. Sha…

In a Hebraistic sense or form. Which is Hebraistically used in the New Testament. Kitto.

of a helpmeet, caused him to sleep, and took one of his ribs and thence made woman. J. H. Newman.

To search for plants, or new species of plants, with a view to classifying them. He herborized as he traveled. W. Tooke.