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Base; vile; mean; depraved; as, a villainous person or wretch.

The state of a villain, or serf; base servitude; tenure on condition of doing the meanest services for the lord. [In this sense written also villenage, and villeinage.] I speak even now as if sin were condemned in a perpetual villanage, never to be manumitted. Milton. Some faint traces of villanage were detected by the…

onsisting of a mixture of several metameric compounds which are higher derivatives of the base pyridine.

, or imaginary sight; an apparition; a phantom; a specter; as, the visions of Isaiah. The baseless fabric of this vision. Shak. No dreams, but visions strange. Sir P. Sidney.

Wearing a visor; masked. Visored falsehood and base forgery. Milton.

t; rustic; boorish; also, offensive to good taste or refined feelings; low; coarse; mean; base; as, vulgar men, minds, language, or manners. Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar. Shak. Vulgar fraction. (Arith.) See under Fraction.

woman; strumpet. [Obs.] Do you think you are here, sir, Amongst your waistcoateers, your base wenches Beau. & Fl.

so, the language spoken by this people. Used also adjectively. [Written also Wallons.] "A base Walloon . . . thrust Talbot with a spear." Shak. Walloon guard, the bodyguard of the Spanish monarch; -- so called because formerly consisting of Walloons.

The membrane which unites the fingers or toes, either at their bases, as in man, or for a greater part of their length, as in many water birds and amphibians.

A solid of five sides, having a rectangular base, two rectangular or trapezoidal sides meeting in an edge, and two triangular ends.

Broad and truncate at the summit, and tapering down to the base; as, a wedge-shaped leaf.

stripe through each eye. The tail is black at the tip and in the middle, but white at the base and on each side. Called also checkbird, chickell, dykehopper, fallow chat, fallow finch, stonechat, and whitetail.

The figure inclosed by lines through the points contact of the wheels of a vehicle, etc., with the surface or rails on which they run; more esp., the length of this figure between the points of contact of the two extreme wheels on either side.

in a plaintive, nasal tone; hence, to complain or to beg in a mean, unmanly way; to moan basely. "Whining plovers." Spenser. The hounds were . . . staying their coming, but with a whining accent, craving liberty. Sir P. Sidney. Dost thou come here to whine Shak.

A test for typhoid fever based on the fact that blood serum of one affected, in a bouillon culture of typhoid bacilli, causes the bacilli to agglutinate and lose their motility.

o manage; to handle; hence, to use or employ; as, to wield a sword; to wield the scepter. Base Hungarian wight! wilt thou the spigot wield! Shak. Part wield their arms, part curb the foaming steed. Milton. Nothing but the influence of a civilized power could induce a savage to wield a spade. S. S. Smith. To wield the s…

- called also wing cover. -- Wing covert (Zoöl.), one of the small feathers covering the bases of the wing quills. See Covert, n., 2. -- Wing gudgeon (Mach.), an iron gudgeon for the end of a wooden axle, having thin, broad projections to prevent it from turning in the wood. See Illust. of Gudgeon. -- Wing shell (Zo…

The ridge between the shoulder bones of a horse, at the base of the neck. See Illust. of Horse. Let the galled jade wince; our withers are unwrung. Shak.

In a working position or manner; as, a T rail placed workwise, i.e., resting on its base.

ions; one devoted to this world and its enjoyments. A foutre for the world and worldlings base. Shak. If we consider the expectations of futurity, the worldling gives up the argument. Rogers. And worldlings blot the temple's gold. Keble.