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To carve or cut, as letters or figures, on some hard substance; to engrave. Thou shalt take two onyx stones, and grave on them the names of the children of Israel. Ex. xxviii. 9.

One who graves; an engraver or a sculptor; one whose occupation is te cut letters or figures in stone or other hard material.

The act or art of carving figures in hard substances, esp. by incision or in intaglio.

remarkable for keen sight and swiftness. It is one of the oldest varieties known, and is figured on the Egyptian monuments. [Written also grayhound.]

llel bars for lifting the hooked wires which raise the warp threads in a loom for weaving figured goods. Knight.

Weakened in a fight so as to stagger; -- said of pugilists. [Cant or Slang]

Like the figures found in ancient grottoes; grottolike; wildly or strangely formed; whimsical; extravagant; of irregular forms and proportions; fantastic; ludicrous; antic. "Grotesque design." Dryden. "Grotesque incidents." Macaulay.

That surface upon which the figures of a composition are set, and which relieves them by its plainness, being either of one tint or of tints but slightly contrasted with one another; as, crimson Bowers on a white ground. See Background, Foreground, and Middle-ground.

The disposal or relative arrangement of figures or objects, as in, drawing, painting, and sculpture, or in ornamental design.

The tincture red, indicated in seals and engraved figures of escutcheons by parallel vertical lines. Hence, used poetically for a red color or that which is red. His sev'n-fold targe a field of gules did stain In which two swords he bore; his word, "Divide and reign." P. Fletcher. Follow thy drum; With man's blood pain…

A grotesque effigy, like that of Guy Fawkes, dressed up in England on the fifth of November, the day of the Gunpowder Plot. The lady . . . who dresses like a guy. W. S. Gilbert.

The goods and wares sold by a haberdasher; also (Fig.), trifles. Burke.

Fig.: To mangle in speaking. Shak.

Half the length of a sword; close fight. "At half-sword." Shak.

es, in the United Kingdom, on gold and silver articles, attesting their purity. Also used figuratively; -- as, a word or phrase lacks the hall-mark of the best writers.

To strike repeated blows, literally or figuratively. Blood and revenge are hammering in my head. Shak.

Seizure by, or grasp of, the hand; also, close quarters in fighting. Hudibras.

By hap, chance, luck, or accident; perhaps; it may be. Lest haply ye be found even to fight against God. Acts v. 39.

ot easy or agreeable to the taste; stiff; rigid; ungraceful; repelling; as, a hard style. Figures harder than even the marble itself. Dryden.

The quality or state of being hard, literally or figuratively. The habit of authority also had given his manners some peremptory hardness. Sir W. Scott.