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A familiar illustration; a subject of contemptuous reference. Thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a by word, among all nations. Deut. xxviii. 37.

A word, or a manner of speaking, peculiar to a province or a district remote from the mother country or from the metropolis; a provincial characteristic; hence, narrowness; illiberality. M. Arnold.

The quality or state of being provincial; peculiarity of language characteristic of a province. T. Warton.

One who utters falsehoods; a liar.

One of the peculiar rodlike corpuscles found in the integument of certain Turbellaria. They are filled with a soft granular substance.

A peculiar reproductive cell found in some fungi.

rs as a class; also, preaching. I say the pulpit (in the sober use Of its legitimate, peculiar powers) Must stand acknowledged, while the world shall stand, The most important and effectual guard, Support, and ornament of virtue's cause. Cowper.

coal tar, and by the decomposition of certain alkaloids, as a colorless liquid with a peculiar pungent odor. It is the nucleus of a large number of organic substances, among which several vegetable alkaloids, as nicotine and certain of the ptomaïnes, may be mentioned. See Lutidine.

The peculiar character, manners, tenets, etc., of the Quakers.

subject, or predicable of it; distinguishing property, characteristic, or attribute; peculiar power, capacity, or virtue; distinctive trait; as, the tones of a flute differ from those of a violin in quality; the great quality of a statesman.

as if from a contract; a quasi corporation, a body that has some, but not all, of the peculiar attributes of a corporation; a quasi argument, that which resembles, or is used as, an argument; quasi historical, apparently historical, seeming to be historical.

The essence, nature, or distinctive peculiarity, of a thing; that which answers the question, Quid est or, What is it " The degree of nullity and quiddity." Bacon. The quiddity or characteristic difference of poetry as distinguished from prose. De Quincey.

A rabbinic expression or phraseology; a peculiarity of the language of the rabbins.

Peculiar flavor, taste, or strength, as of wine; that quality, or assemblage of qualities, which indicates origin or kind, as in wine; hence, characteristic flavor; smack. "A race of heaven." Shak. Is it [the wine] of the right race Massinqer.

The quality of being racy; peculiar and piquant flavor. The general characteristics of his [Cobbett's] style were perspicuity, unequaled and inimitable; . . . a purity always simple, and raciness often elegant. London Times.

A variety of the game of tennis played with peculiar long-handled rackets; -- chiefly in the plural. Chaucer.

ting to the mental taste by a strong or distinctive character of thought or language; peculiar and piquant; fresh and lively. Our raciest, most idiomatic popular word. M. Arnold. Burn's English, though not so racy as his Scotch, is generally correct. H. Coleridge. The rich and racy humor of a natural converser fresh fr…

ust. of Fang. Ground rattlesnake (Zoöl.), a small rattlesnake (Caudisona, or Sistrurus, miliaria) of the Southern United States, having a small rattle. It has nine large scales on its head. -- Rattlesnake fern (Bot.), a common American fern (Botrychium Virginianum) having a triangular decompound frond and a long-stalk…

A keen-edged knife of peculiar shape, used in shaving the hair from the face or the head. "Take thee a barber's rasor." Ezek. v. 1.

ossessed of principles. Coleridge. The sense perceives; the understanding, in its own peculiar operation, conceives; the reason, or rationalized understanding, comprehends. Coleridge.