Search the Dictionary

6. The letter N came into English through the Latin and Greek from the Phoenician, which probably derived it from the Egyptian as the ultimate origin. It is etymologically most closely related to M. See M.

on, etc., to detect and expose it, so as to put a stop to its currency; -- an expression probably derived from the former practice of shopkeepers, who were accustomed to nail bad or counterfeit pieces of money to the counter.

), a name applied to a particular person, place, or thing. -- To call names, to apply opprobrious epithets to; to call by reproachful appellations. -- To take a name in vain, to use a name lightly or profanely; to use a name in making flippant or dishonest oaths. Ex. xx. 7.

Formerly, designating an acid probably identical with phthalic acid.

An easy, unceremonious attire; undress; also, a kind of easy robe or dressing gown worn by women.

Newfangledness. [Obs.] Chaucer. Proud newfangleness in their apparel. Robynson (More's Utopia).

A name given in contempt, derision, or sportive familiarity; a familiar or an opprobrious appellation.

A coward; a dastard; -- a term of utmost opprobrium. [Obs.] He is worthy to be called a niding. Howell.

hloric, nitrocalcite; also, designating the group or radical NO2, or its compounds, as nitrobenzene. Nitro group, the radical NO2; -- called also nitroxyl.

Niter. Nitrum flammans Etym: [L., flaming niter] (Old Chem.), ammonium nitrate; -- probably so called because it deflagerates when suddenly heated.

To signify by a nod; as, to nod approbation.

t one's nose into, to meddle officiously in. -- To wipe one's nose of, to deprive of; to rob. [Slang]

One who enters a religious house, whether of monks or nuns, as a probationist. Shipley. No poore cloisterer, nor no novys. Chaucer.

Hence: Time of probation in a religious house before taking the vows.

Shak. Then cried they all again, saying, Not this man, but Barabbas. Now, Barabbas was a robber. John xviii. 40. The other great and undoing mischief which befalls men is, by their being misrepresented. Now, by calling evil good, a man is misrepresented to others in the way of slander. South. Now and again, now and th…

legal force or efficacy. Such correspondence would at once nullify the conditions of the probationary system. I. Taylor.

ches were introduced into the United States in 1853; -- so called from the color or their robe, and known in religion as Sisters of Charity of Montreal. -- Nun buoy. See under Buoy.

A species of sorcery, probably of African origin, practiced among the negroes of the West Indies. [Written also obe and obeah.] De Quincey. B. Edwards.

came to be abusively applied to denote motive, end, final cause.... This innovation was probably borrowed from the French. Sir. W. Hamilton. Let our object be, our country, our whole country, and nothing but our country. D. Webster.

oise; clamorous; noisy; vociferous. "The obstreperous city." Wordsworth. "Obstreperous approbation." Addison. Beating the air with their obstreperous beaks. B. Jonson. -- Ob*strep"er*ous*ly, adv. -- Ob*strep"er*ous*ness, n.