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A limb or member of an animal used for supporting the body, and in running, climbing, and swimming; esp., that part of the limb between the knee and foot.

aving (such or so many) legs; -- used in composition; as, a long-legged man; a two-legged animal.

A bird or other animal having slender toes. [Written also lepodactyle.]

e of a family (Lernæidæ) of parasitic Crustacea found attached to fishes and other marine animals. Some species penetrate the skin and flesh with the elongated head, and feed on the viscera. See Illust. in Appendix.

White and black; -- said of a white animal of a black species, or the albino of the negro race.

An animal base or alkaloid, appearing in the tissue during life; hence, a vital alkaloid, as distinguished from a ptomaine or cadaveric poison.

An aquatic animal, described in the book of Job, ch. xli., and mentioned on other passages of Scripture.

A place where salt is found on the surface of the earth, to which wild animals resort to lick it up; -- often, but not always, near salt springs. [U. S.]

, and ends with death; also, the time during which this state continues; that state of an animal or plant in which all or any of its organs are capable of performing all or any of their functions; -- used of all animal and vegetable organisms.

The lungs of an animal or bird; -- sometimes coarsely applied to the lungs of a human being.

Light in weight, as a coin; specif., applied to a man or animal who is a lightweight.

An arm or a leg of a human being; a leg, arm, or wing of an animal. A second Hector for his grim aspect, And large proportion of his strong-knit limbs. Shak.

An order of Merostomata, including among living animals the genus Limulus, with various allied fossil genera, mostly of the Carboniferous period. Called also Xiphosura.

To impregnate; -- applied to brute animals. Creech. Lined gold, gold foil having a lining of another metal.

One of the two fleshy folds which surround the orifice of the mouth in man and many other animals. In man the lips are organs of speech essential to certain articulations. Hence, by a figure they denote the mouth, or all the organs of speech, and sometimes speech itself. Thine own lips testify against thee. Jeb xv. 6.…

Eating or destroying stone; -- applied to various animals which make burrows in stone, as many bivalve mollusks, certain sponges, annelids, and sea urchins. See Lithodomus.

those gorgonians having a calcareous axis. All the lithophytes except the corallines are animals.

Straw, hay, etc., scattered on a floor, as bedding for animals to rest on; also, a covering of straw for plants. To crouch in litter of your stable planks. Shak. Take off the litter from your kernel beds. Evelyn.

e or extent; not big; diminutive; -- opposed to big or large; as, a little body; a little animal; a little piece of ground; a little hill; a little distance; a little child. He sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature. Luke xix. 3.

To be alive; to have life; to have, as an animal or a plant, the capacity of assimilating matter as food, and to be dependent on such assimilation for a continuance of existence; as, animals and plants that live to a great age are long in reaching maturity. Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will . . .…