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ter or other liquid; to steep, as for the purpose of softening or freshening; as, to soak cloth; to soak bread; to soak salt meat, salt fish, or the like.

rsh to the touch; smooth; delicate; fine; as, soft silk; a soft skin. They that wear soft clothing are in king's houses. Matt. xi. 8.

place in distinct classes or divisions, as things having different qualities; as, to sort cloths according to their colors; to sort wool or thread according to its fineness. Rays which differ in refrangibility may be parted and sorted from one another. Sir I. Newton.

A hat made of painted canvas, oiled cloth, or the like, with a flap at the back, -- worn in stormy weather.

eserved; not wanted, or not used; superfluous; as, I have no spare time. If that no spare clothes he had to give. Spenser.

t; a kind; a variety; as, a species of low cunning; a species of generosity; a species of cloth.

To weigh or lay out; to dispose of; to part with; as, to spend money for clothing. Spend thou that in the town. Shak. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread Isa. lv. 2.

A cloth dipped in a liquid for washing a sore. Crabb.

discharge. It consists of a cylinder of wood, covered with sheepskin with the wool on, or cloth with a heavy looped nap, and having a handle, or staff.

A kind of cloth interwoven with small pieces of sponge and rendered waterproof on one side by a covering of rubber. When moistend with hot water it is used as a poultice.

isions; as, to spread a table. Boiled the flesh, and spread the board. Tennyson. To sprad cloth, to unfurl sail. [Obs.] Evelyn.

Not equally good throughout; not uniform; uneven; faulty; -- said of cloth.

To color, as wood, glass, paper, cloth, or the like, by processess affecting, chemically or otherwise, the material itself; to tinge with a color or colors combining with, or penetrating, the substance; to dye; as, to stain wood with acids, colored washes, paint rubbed in, etc.; to stain glass.

A kind of woolen cloth. [Written also stamine.] [Obs.]

A kind of woolen cloth formerly in use. It seems to have been often of a red color. [Obs.]

tiono make stiff; to make less pliant or flexible; as, to stiffen cloth with starch. Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood. Shak.

One who, or that which, stiffens anything, as a piece of stiff cloth in a cravat.

The quality or state of being stiff; as, the stiffness of cloth or of paste; stiffness of manner; stiffness of character. The vices of old age have the stiffness of it too. South.

Ever closing. [Obs.] "Still-clothing waters." Shak.

Any least part of a fabric or dress; as, to wet every stitch of clothes. [Colloq.]