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bite, as something hard or tough, which is not readily separated or crushed; to bite off little by little, with effort; to wear or eat away by scraping or continuous biting with the teeth; to nibble at. His bones clean picked; his very bones they gnaw. Dryden.

To be swallowed; -- used literally or figuratively. [Colloq.] Nothing so ridiculous, . . . but it goes down whole with him for truth. L' Estrange. -- To go far. (a) To go to a distance. (b) To have much weight or influence. -- To go for. (a) To go in quest of. (b) To represent; to pass for.

A little mass or collection; a small quantity; a mouthful. [Low] L'Estrange.

Literally, a fly swallower; hence, once who keeps his mouth open; a boor; a silly and credulous person.

s in rural employments, followed by the silver, bronze, and iron ages. Dryden. (b) (Roman Literature) The best part (B. C. 81 -- A. D. 14) of the classical period of Latinity; the time when Cicero, Cæsar, Virgil, etc., wrote. Hence: (c) That period in the history of a literature, etc., when it flourishes in its greates…

Possessing desirable qualities; adapted to answer the end designed; promoting success, welfare, or happiness; serviceable; useful; fit; excellent; admirable; commendable; not bad, corrupt, evil, noxious, offensive, or troublesome, etc. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. Gen. i. 31. G…

A cutting instrument used in lithotomy.

Literally, a letter word; a word represented by a logogram; as, it, represented by |, that is, t. pitman.

A petty grammarian; a grammatical pedant or pretender. My noble Neophite, my little grammaticaster. B. Jonson.

A little grain a small particle; a pellet.

. See Heath grouse. -- Gray mill or millet (Bot.), a name of several plants of the genus Lithospermum; gromwell. -- Gray mullet (Zoöl.) any one of the numerous species of the genus Mugil, or family Mugilidæ, found both in the Old World and America; as the European species (M. capito, and M. auratus), the American str…

Large in space; of much size; big; immense; enormous; expanded; -- opposed to small and little; as, a great house, ship, farm, plain, distance, length.

One well versed in the Greek language, literature, or history. De Quincey.

A little Greek, or one of small esteem or pretensions. B. Jonson.

Green plants; verdure. A pretty little one-storied abode, so rural, so smothered in greenery. J. Ingelow.

A little pig. [Written also grise.] [Scot.]

A little pig. [Obs.] Piers Plowman.

A plant of the genus Lithospermum (L. arvense), anciently used, because of its stony pericarp, in the cure of gravel. The German gromwell is the Stellera. [Written also gromill.]

ands, when one can not see. We grope for the wall like the blind. Is. lix. 10. To grope a little longer among the miseries and sensualities ot a worldly life. Buckminster.

d to the wrens and titmice. It inhibits the arid plains. Called also gronnd tit, and wren lit. -- To bite the ground, To break ground. See under Bite, Break. -- To come to the ground, To fall to the ground, to come to nothing; to fail; to miscarry. -- To gain ground. (a) To advance; to proceed forward in confict; as…