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r to a lower state of organization or structure, as when an animal, approaching maturity, becomes less highly organized than would be expected from its earlier stages or known relationship. Called also retrograde development, and regressive metamorphism.

fate you see; I pitied you, now you may pity me. Dryden. By a reverse of fortune, Stephen becomes rich. Lamb.

To return to life; to recover life or strength; to live anew; to become reanimated or reinvigorated. Shak. The Lord heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into again, and he revived. 1 Kings xvii. 22.

versed in the rules and principles of rhetoric. The understanding is that by which a man becomes a mere logician and a mere rhetorician. F. W. Robertson.

d.), acute rheumatism attended with fever, and attacking usually the larger joints, which become swollen, hot, and very painful. -- Rheumatism root. (Bot.) See Twinleaf.

gricola, discerning that those little targets and unwieldy glaives ill pointed would soon become ridiculous against the thrust and close, commanded three Batavian cohorts . . . to draw up and come to handy strokes. Milton.

To recover the proper or natural condition or position; to become upright.

s of the genus Ægialitis, having a ring around the neck. The ring is black in summer, but becomes brown or gray in winter. The semipalmated plover (Æ. semipalmata) and the piping plover (Æ. meloda) are common North American species. Called also ring plover, and ring-necked plover.

To grow ripe; to become mature, as grain, fruit, flowers, and the like; as, grapes ripen in the sun.

To become fretted or dimpled on the surface, as water when agitated or running over a rough bottom; to be covered with small waves or undulations, as a field of grain.

To become erect; to assume an upright position; as, to rise from a chair or from a fall.

ection, at intervals, of brilliant balls or stars of fire which are thrown upward as they become ignited. -- Roman Catholic, of, pertaining to, or the religion of that church of which the pope is the spiritual head; as, a Roman Catholic priest; the Roman Catholic Church. -- Roman cement, a cement having the property…

em, a samurai who had renounced his clan or who had been discharged or ostracized and had become a wanderer without a lord; an outcast; an outlaw.

of the plant above the radicle. -- To strike root, To take root, to send forth roots; to become fixed in the earth, etc., by a root; hence, in general, to become planted, fixed, or established; to increase and spread; as, an opinion takes root. "The bended twigs take root." Milton.

hanges, giving off usually in some stages of the process more or less offensive odors; to become decomposed by a natural process; to putrefy; to decay. Fixed like a plant on his peculiar spot, To draw nutrition, propagate, and rot. Pope.

To grow or become rough.

In a royal or kingly manner; like a king; as becomes a king. His body shall be royally interred. Dryden.

To become disordered; to play loosely; to flutter. On his right shoulder his thick mane reclined, Ruffles at speed, and dances in the wind. Dryden.

That which is fallen down and become worthless from injury or decay; as, his mind is a ruin; especially, in the plural, the remains of a destroyed, dilapidated, or desolate house, fortress, city, or the like. The Veian and the Gabian towers shall fall, And one promiscuous ruin cover all; Nor, after length of years, a s…

To contend in a race; hence, to enter into a contest; to become a candidate; as, to run for Congress. Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize So run, that ye may obtain. 1 Cor. ix. 24.