Search the Dictionary

A mask used to disfigure or disguise. "My very visor began to assume life." Shak. My weaker government since, makes you pull off the visor. Sir P. Sidney.

A dance performed by two persons in circular figures with a whirling motion; also, a piece of music composed in triple measure for this kind of dance.

Work made of wax; especially, a figure or figures formed or partly of wax, in imitation of real beings.

An exhibition of wax figures, or the place of exhibition.

A vane, or weather vane; -- so called because originally often in the figure of a cock, turning on the top of a spire with the wind, and showing its direction. "As a wedercok that turneth his face with every wind." Chaucer. Noisy weathercocks rattled and sang of mutation. Longfellow.

rowing in cultivated ground to the injury of the crop or desired vegetation, or to the disfigurement of the place; an unsightly, useless, or injurious plant. Too much manuring filled that field with weeds. Denham.

d of such a rod is fixed, the free end describes in vibrating the corresponding Lissajous figure. So called because devised by Sir Charles Wheatstone.

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.

Representing the whole figure; -- said of a picture or statue. -- n.

originally applied to the notes of an insolvent bank in Michigan upon which there was the figure of a panther.

A figure formed of lines crossing each other. [R.] Till he has windows on his bread and butter. King.

t used with indigo as a ferment in dyeing. Their bodies . . . painted with woad in sundry figures. Milton. Wild woad (Bot.), the weld (Reseda luteola). See Weld. -- Woad mill, a mill grinding and preparing woad.

under Methyl. -- Wood stamp, a carved or engraved block or stamp of wood, for impressing figures or colors on fabrics. -- Wood star (Zoöl.), any one of several species of small South American humming birds belonging to the genus Calothorax. The male has a brilliant gorget of blue, purple, and other colors. -- Wood s…

ngainly; stiff; spiritless. When a bold man is out of countenance, he makes a very wooden figure on it. Collier. His singing was, I confess, a little wooden. G. MacDonald. Wooden spoon. (a) (Cambridge University, Eng.) The last junior optime who takes a university degree, -- denoting one who is only fit to stay at home…

y mental labor; a composition; a book; as, a work, or the works, of Addison. (b) Flowers, figures, or the like, wrought with the needle; embroidery. I am glad I have found this napkin; . . . I'll have the work ta'en out, And give 't Iago. Shak.

y material by a suitable instrument; as, to write the characters called letters; to write figures.

A figure by which an adjective or verb, which agrees with a nearer word, is, by way of supplement, referred also to another more remote; as, "hic illius arma, hic currus fuit;" where fuit, which agrees directly with currus, is referred also to arma.

A figure representing the signs, symbols, and constellations of the zodiac.

odiacal planets. Zodiacal light, a luminous tract of the sky, of an elongated, triangular figure, lying near the ecliptic, its base being on the horizon, and its apex at varying altitudes. It is to be seen only in the evening, after twilight, and in the morning before dawn. It is supposed to be due to sunlight reflecte…

An optical toy, in which figures made to revolve on the inside of a cylinder, and viewed through slits in its circumference, appear like a single figure passing through a series of natural motions as if animated or mechanically moved.