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Any abyss; especially, the grave, or hades. Back to the infernal pit I drag thee chained. Milton. He keepth back his soul from the pit. Job xxxiii. 18.

An extra plate on the lower part of the breastplate or backplate. Planché.

A division of gastropod Mollusca, including the chitons. The back is covered by eight shelly plates. Called also Polyplacophora. See Illust. under Chiton, and Isopleura.

ich projects slightly the steel cutting edge of a chisel, called the iron, which inclines backward, with an apperture in front for the escape of shavings; as, the jack plane; the smoothing plane; the molding plane, etc. Objective plane (Surv.), the horizontal plane upon which the object which is to be delineated, or wh…

, or work diligently and steadily; especially, to do something by repeated actions; to go back and forth; as, a steamer plies between certain ports. Ere half these authors be read (which will soon be with plying hard and daily). Milton. He was forced to ply in the streets as a porter. Addison. The heavy hammers and mal…

One of the spaces on a backgammon board.

A switch made up of a rail from each track, both rails being tapered far back and connected to throw alongside the through rail of either track.

ont axle of a carriage between the wheel horses, by which the carriage is guided and held back. (b) A flag pole, a pole on which a flag is supported. (c) A Maypole. See Maypole. (d) A barber's pole, a pole painted in stripes, used as a sign by barbers and hairdressers.

The head; the back part of the head. "All flaxen was his poll." Shak.

A game of ball of Eastern origin, resembling hockey, with the players on horseback.

A division of Nudibranchiata including those which have numerous branchiæ on the back.

A suborder of existing ganoid fishes having numerous fins along the back. The bichir, or Polypterus, is the type. See Illust. under Crossopterygian.

cut low and square in the neck; also, a mode of dressing the hair by drawing it straight back from the forehead over a roll; -- so called after the Marchioness de Pompadour of France. Also much used adjectively.

popular in England in the 19th century, in which a thick opaque color is applied without background and with scarcely any shading, to thin paper, producing flowers, birds, etc., in imitation of Oriental work. Hence: Poonah brush, paper, painter, etc.

Any Old Word rodent of the genus Hystrix, having the back covered with long, sharp, erectile spines or quills, sometimes a foot long. The common species of Europe and Asia (Hystrix cristata) is the best known.

To paint or draw the likeness of; as, to portray a king on horseback. Take a tile, and lay it before thee, and portray upon it the city, even Jerusalem. Ezek. iv. 1.

A prefix signifying behind, back, after; as, postcommissure, postdot, postscript.

Situated back of the temporal bone or the temporal region of the skull; -- applied especially to a bone which usually connects the supraclavicle with the skull in the pectoral arch of fishes. -- n.

A bone in the pectoral girdle of many fishes projecting backward from the clavicle. -- Post`*cla*vic"u*lar, a.

Originally, a back door or gate; a private entrance; hence, any small door or gate. He by a privy postern took his flight. Spenser. Out at the postern, by the abbey wall. Shak.