Search the Dictionary

To overturn from the foundation; to overthrow; to ruin utterly. These are his substance, sinews, arms, and strength, With which he yoketh your rebellious necks, Razeth your cities, and subverts your towns. Shak. This would subvert the principles of all knowledge. Locke.

To call, bid, or cite; to notify to come to appear; -- often with up. Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood. Shak. Trumpets summon him to war. Dryden.

A swordsman. "Sinewy swordmen." Shak.

Full of tendons; sinewy; as, nervous and tendinous parts of the body.

rd, bundle, or band of fibrous connective tissue uniting a muscle with some other part; a sinew. Tendon reflex (Physiol.), a kind of reflex act in which a muscle is made to contract by a blow upon its tendon. Its absence is generally a sign of disease. See Knee jerk, under Knee.

Muscle or strength; nerve; brawn; sinew. Shak. And I myself, who sat apart And watched them, waxed in every limb; I felt the thews of Anakim, The pules of a Titan's heart. Tennyson.

Having strong or large thews or muscles; muscular; sinewy; strong.

Fig.: To cover, as if with tiles. The muscle, sinew, and vein, Which tile this house, will come again. Donne.

Not easily broken; able to endure hardship; firm; strong; as, tough sinews. Cowper. A body made of brass, the crone demands, . . . Tough to the last, and with no toil to tire. Dryden. The basis of his character was caution combined with tough tenacity of purpose. J. A. Symonds.

which are employed in solving the different cases of plane and spherical trigonometry, as sines, tangents, secants, and the like. These lines, or the lengths of them, are trigonometrical functions of the arcs and angles to which they belong. -- Trigonometrical survey. See under Survey.

taken as one, or for which 1 is made to stand in calculation; thus, in a table of natural sines, the radius of the circle is regarded as unity.

To deprive of sinews or of strength. [R.] Dryden.

s versed beyond any person of his age. Southey. These men were versed in the details of business. Macaulay.

secrete from their bodies a waxlike substance, especially the Chinese wax insect (Coccus Sinensis) from which a large amount of the commercial Chinese wax is obtained. Called also pela. -- Wax light, a candle or taper of wax. -- Wax moth (Zoöl.), a pyralid moth (Galleria cereana) whose larvæ feed upon honeycomb, and…

penitence. -- Weeping rock, a porous rock from which water gradually issues. -- Weeping sinew, a ganglion. See Ganglion, n., 2. [Colloq.] -- Weeping spring, a spring that discharges water slowly. -- Weeping willow (Bot.), a species of willow (Salix Babylonica) whose branches grow very long and slender, and hang down…

A large mass of tough sinewy substance in the head of sperm whales, just above the upper jaw and extending in streaks into the junk above it. It resembles blubber, but contains no oil. Also, the part of the head in which it occurs.

Capable of endurance; tough; sinewy; as, a wiry frame or constitution. "A little wiry sergeant of meek demeanor and strong sense." Dickens. He bore his age well, and seemed to retain a wiry vigor and alertness. Hawthorne.

out thee. Tatler. To do without. See under Do. -- Without day Etym: [a translation of L. sine die], without the appointment of a day to appear or assemble again; finally; as, the Fortieth Congress then adjourned without day. -- Without recourse. See under Recourse.