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To talk superficially or ignorantly; to babble; to chatter. Of state affairs you can not smatter. Swift.

imp. & p. p. of Smite. Spenser. Smit with the beauty of so fair a scene. Cowper.

To flatter; to use blandishment. Because I can not flatter and speak fair, Smile in men's faces, smooth, deceive and cog. Shak.

To make smug, or spruce. [Obs.] Thus said, he smugged his beard, and stroked up fair. Dryton.

through the nose, so as to make a noise, as do high-spirited horsed in prancing and play. Fairfax.

rent; at some distance. Shak. I something fear my father's wrath. Shak. We have something fairer play than a reasoner could have expected formerly. Burke. My sense of touch is something coarse. Tennyson. It must be done to-night, And something from the palace. Shak.

Formerly; sometime. [Obs.] That fair and warlike form In which the majesty of buried Denmark Did sometimes march. Shak.

y one who does a thing prematurely or anticipates another in acting in order to gain an unfair advantage.

Sweet. [Obs.] Chaucer. Fairfax.

s like an invention. Good sir, why do you start, and seem to fear Things that do sound so fair Shak. To sound in or into, to tend to; to partake of the nature of; to be consonant with. [Obs., except in the phrase To sound in damages, below.] Soun[d]ing in moral virtue was his speech. Chaucer. -- To sound in damages (La…

The act of sousing, or swooping. As a falcon fair That once hath failed or her souse full near. Spenser.

h red, an ocherous red pigment resembling Venetian red, but slightly yellower and warmer. Fairholt. -- Spanish reef (Naut.), a knot tied in the head of a jib-headed sail. -- Spanish sheep (Zoöl.), a merino. -- Spanish white, an impalpable powder prepared from chalk by pulverizing and repeated washings, -- used as a…

Sparing; chary. [Obs.] Fairfax. -- Spare"ful*ness, n. [Obs.] Sir P. Sidney.

to utter or pronounce, as in conversation; as, to speak Latin. And French she spake full fair and fetisely. Chaucer.

Apparently right; superficially fair, just, or correct, but not so in reality; appearing well at first view; plausible; as, specious reasoning; a specious argument. Misled for a moment by the specious names of religion, liberty, and property. Macaulay. In consequence of their greater command of specious expression. J.…

ive at full speed; hence, to hasten; to hurry. He sped him thence home to his habitation. Fairfax.

To tell; to relate; to teach. [Obs.] Might I that legend find, By fairies spelt in mystic rhymes. T. Warton.

ural being, good or bad; an apparition; a specter; a ghost; also, sometimes, a sprite,; a fairy; an elf. Whilst young, preserve his tender mind from all impressions of spirits and goblins in the dark. Locke.

(Eccl. Law), an ecclesiastical court, or a court having jurisdiction in ecclesiastical affairs; a court held by a bishop or other ecclesiastic.

darkness dread, Legions of sprights. Spenser. To thee, O Father, Son, and Sacred Spright. Fairfax.