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al or main subject of the whole; a matter treated of; a subject, as of conversation or of thought; a matter; a point; a head.

ne who, or that which, torments; one who inflicts penal anguish or tortures. Jer. Taylor. Thoughts, my tormentors, armed with deadly stings. Milton.

To walk or run about in a slatternly, careless, or thoughtless manner. [Colloq.] Pope.

Ambitious and imaginative vagueness in thought, imagery, or diction.

To step or walk on. Forbid to tread the promised land he saw. Prior. Methought she trod the ground with greater grace. Dryden.

A powerful brass instrument of the trumpet kind, thought by some to be the ancient sackbut, consisting of a tube in three parts, bent twice upon itself and ending in a bell. The middle part, bent double, slips into the outer parts, as in a telescope, so that by change of the vibrating length any tone within the compass…

test; temporary cessation; short quiet. Where he may likeliest find Truce to his restless thoughts. Milton. Flag of truce (Mil.), a white flag carried or exhibited by one of the hostile parties, during the flying of which hostilities are suspended. -- Truce of God, a suspension of arms promulgated by the church, which…

swell, or puff up. To swell, tumefy, stiffen, not the diction only, but the tenor of the thought. De Quincey.

of battle." Milton. Thrice I deluded her, and turned to sport Her importunity. Milton. My thoughts are turned on peace. Addison.

arrived at, as the last result; final. Those ultimate truths and those universal laws of thought which we can not rationally contradict. Coleridge.

Not aware; not noticing; giving no heed; thoughtless; inattentive. Swift.

To recall or take back, as something thought. Shak.

Not thinking; not heedful; thoughtless; inconsiderate; as, unthinking youth.

Not blemished; undefiled; pure. [Obs.] Wyclif. With body clean and with unwemmed thought. Chaucer.

lute; as, utter ruin; utter darkness. They . . . are utter strangers to all those anxious thoughts which disquiet mankind. Atterbury.

f continuity; chasm; gap; as, a vacancy between buildings; a vacancy between sentences or thoughts.

Empty of thought; thoughtless; not occupied with study or reflection; as, a vacant mind. The duke had a pleasant and vacant face. Sir H. Wotton. When on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood. Wordsworth.

Hence, a wandering of the thoughts; a wild or fanciful freak; a whim; a whimsical purpose. "The vagaries of a child." Spectator. They changed their minds, Flew off, and into strange vagaries fell. Milton.

lor. The poet turned away, and gave himself up to a sort of vague revery, which he called thought. Hawthorne.

ons, in time, tune, or harmony, or sometimes change of key; the presentation of a musical thought in new and varied aspects, yet so that the essential features of the original shall still preserve their identity.