Search the Dictionary

A mineral of a blackish green color, commonly massive or in nodules. It is a hydrous phosphate of iron.

lor, which is sometimes eaten, as in Scotland. The true dulse is Sarcophyllis edulis; the common is Rhodymenia. [Written also dillisk.] The crimson leaf of the dulse is seen To blush like a banner bathed in slaughter. Percival.

A close, dark prison, commondonjon or keep of a castle, these being used as prisons. Down with him even into the deep dungeon. Tyndale. Year after year he lay patiently in a dungeon. Macaulay.

lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill. 1. Sam. ii. 8. Dunghill fowl, a domestic fowl of common breed.

lland. It is yellowish, very hard, and long and narrow in shape. -- Dutch clover (Bot.), common white clover (Trifolium repens), the seed of which was largely imported into England from Holland. -- Dutch concert, a so-called concert in which all the singers sing at the same time different songs. [Slang] -- Dutch cour…

from growing to the natural size; to make or keep small; to stunt. Addison. Even the most common moral ideas and affections . . . would be stunted and dwarfed, if cut off from a spiritual background. J. C. Shairp.

Like a dwarf; below the common stature or size; very small; petty; as, a dwarfish animal, shrub. -- Dwarf"ish*ly, adv. -- Dwarf"ish*ness, n.

dyslogistic -- no bantling, but now almost a centenarian -- is adjudged to that genius of common sense, Jeremy Bentham. Fitzed. Hall.

great harpy eagle (Thrasaetus harpyia). The figure of the eagle, as the king of birds, is commonly used as an heraldic emblem, and also for standards and emblematic devices. See Bald eagle, Harpy, and Golden eagle.

sive waves, of great height and violence, at flood tide moving up an estuary or river; -- commonly called the bore. See Bore.

That which is earned; wages gained by work or services; money earned; -- used commonly in the plural. As to the common people, their stock is in their persons and in their earnings. Burke.

A bag filled with earth, used commonly to raise or repair a parapet.

A frame (commonly) of wood serving to hold a canvas upright, or nearly upright, for the painter's convenience or for exhibition. Easel picture, Easel piece, a painting of moderate size such as is made while resting on an easel, as distinguished from a painting on a wall or ceiling.

or formality; -- said of style, manner, etc. With painful care, but seeming easiness. Roscommon.

ed States east of the Alleghany Mountains, esp. the Eastern, or New England, States; now, commonly, the whole region east of the Mississippi River, esp. that which is north of Maryland and the Ohio River; -- usually with the definite article; as, the commerce of the East is not independent of the agriculture of the Wes…

The common white lily (Lilium candidum), called also Annunciation lily.

etly listening to what is said, and then tattling it abroad. The offense is indictable at common law. Wharton.

a better to a worse state; low state or condition; decline; decay. "Our ebb of life." Roscommon. Painting was then at its lowest ebb. Dryden. Ebb and flow, the alternate ebb and flood of the tide; often used figuratively. This alternation between unhealthy activity and depression, this ebb and flow of the industrial.…

A genus of echinoderms, including the common edible sea urchin of Europe.

A rock consisting of granular red garnet, light green smaragdite, and common hornblende; -- so called in reference to its beauty.