Search the Dictionary

An elongated fish of many genera and species. The common eels of Europe and America belong to the genus Anguilla. The electrical eel is a species of Gymnotus. The so called vinegar eel is a minute nematode worm. See Conger eel, Electric eel, and Gymnotus.

The common newt; -- called also asker, eft, evat, and ewt.

or representation of a person, whether a full figure, or a part; an imitative figure; -- commonly applied to sculptured likenesses, as those on monuments, or to those of the heads of princes on coins and medals, sometimes applied to portraits. To burn, or To hang, in effigy, to burn or to hang an image or picture of a…

mical change between some of the ingredients of the matter covered and an acid proceeding commonly from an external source; as, the walls of limestone caverns sometimes effloresce with nitrate of calcium in consequence of the action in consequence of nitric acid formed in the atmosphere.

To increase; to add to; to augment; -- now commonly used with out, the notion conveyed being to add to, or piece out by a laborious, inferior, or scanty addition; as, to eke out a scanty supply of one kind with some other. "To eke my pain." Spenser. He eked out by his wits an income of barely fifty pounds. Macaulay.…

arlier; older; as, his elder brother died in infancy; -- opposed to Ant: younger, and now commonly applied to a son, daughter, child, brother, etc. The elder shall serve the younger. Gen. xxv. 23. But ask of elder days, earth's vernal hour. Keble. Elder hand (Card Playing), the hand playing, or having the right to play…

nic structures, either animal or vegetable, the phrase animal electricity being much more common.

The art or process of depositing a coating (commonly) of silver, gold, or nickel on an inferior metal, by means of electricity.

One of the simplest essential parts, more commonly called cells, of which animal and vegetable organisms, or their tissues and organs, are composed.

Pertaining to the elephant, or resembling an elephant (commonly, in size); hence, huge; immense; heavy; as, of elephantine proportions; an elephantine step or tread. Elephantine epoch (Geol.), the epoch distinguished by the existence of large pachyderms. Mantell. -- Elephantine tortoise (Zoöl.), a huge land tortoise;…

An imaginary supernatural being, commonly a little sprite, much like a fairy; a mythological diminutive spirit, supposed to haunt hills and wild places, and generally represented as delighting in mischievous tricks. Every elf, and fairy sprite, Hop as light as bird from brier. Shak.

h used as a shade tree, particularly in America. The English elm is Ulmus campestris; the common American or white elm is U. Americana; the slippery or red elm, U. fulva. Elm beetle (Zoöl.), one of several species of beetles (esp. Galeruca calmariensis), which feed on the leaves of the elm. -- Elm borer (Zoöl.), one o…

To represent by, or as by, an emblem; to symbolize. Anciently the sun was commonly emblematized by a starry or radiate figure. Bp. Hurd.

ir diffused in the cellular tissue. Emphysema of the lungs, Pulmonary emphysema (Med.), a common disease of the lungs in which the air cells are distended and their partition walls ruptured by an abnormal pressure of the air contained in them.

r the minds of men. A. W. Ward. Celestial empire. See under Celestial. -- Empire City, a common designation of the city of New York. -- Empire State, a common designation of the State of New York.

To give authority to; to delegate power to; to commission; to authorize (having commonly a legal force); as, the Supreme Court is empowered to try and decide cases, civil or criminal; the attorney is empowered to sign an acquittance, and discharge the debtor.

English words are written indifferently with en- or in-. For ease of pronunciation it is commonly changed to em- before p, b, and m, as in employ, embody, emmew. It is sometimes used to give a causal force, as in enable, enfeeble, to cause to be, or to make, able, or feeble; and sometimes merely gives an intensive for…

Belonging to, or used in, a country; native; domestic; popular; common; -- said especially of the written characters employed by the common people of ancient Egypt, in distinction from the hieroglyphics. See Demotic.

stealth into the possessions or rights of another; to trespass; to intrude; to trench; -- commonly with on or upon; as, to encroach on a neighbor; to encroach on the highway. No sense, faculty, or member must encroach upon or interfere with the duty and office of another. South. Superstition, . . . a creeping and encro…

A noun suffix having much the same meaning as -ence, but more commonly signifying the quality or state; as, emergency, efficiency. See -ancy.