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that no fact or truth, however worthy of confidence, can be established on philosophical grounds; critical investigation or inquiry, as opposed to the positive assumption or assertion of certain principles.

A little dell or valley; a flat piece of low, moist ground. [Obs.] Drayton.

ster and of a slaty structure. -- Transparent slate, a plate of translucent material, as ground glass, upon which a copy of a picture, placed beneath it, can be made by tracing.

nk slightly turned up at one end, used for transporting loads upon the snow, ice, or bare ground; a sled.

One of the pieces of timber, stone, or iron, on or near the level of the ground, for the support of some superstructure, to steady framework, to keep in place the rails of a railway, etc.; a stringpiece.

ht is the subject, but not so the praise. Pope. Some firmly embrace doctrines upon slight grounds. Locke.

Not affording firm ground for confidence; as, a slippery promise. The slippery tops of human state. Cowley.

lding (Brickmaking), a process of manufacture in which the brick is carried to the drying ground in a wet mold instead of on a pallet.

Any ground whose surface forms an angle with the plane of the horizon. buildings the summit and slope of a hill. Macaulay. Under the slopes of Pisgah. Deut. iv. 49. (Rev. Ver.).

ddenly through or in, when walking on a surface, as on thawing snow or ice, partly frozen ground, a bog, etc., not strong enough to bear the person. The latter walk on a bottomless quag, into which unawares they may slump. Barrow.

A ball bowled so as to roll along the ground; -- called also grub. [Cant] R. A. Proctor.

nt (Galanthus nivalis) bearing white flowers, which often appear while the snow is on the ground. It is cultivated in gardens for its beauty. Snowdrop tree. See Silver-bell tree, under Silver, a.

A shoot running along under ground, forming new plants at short distances.

To enrich with soil or muck; to manure. Men . . . soil their ground, not that they love the dirt, but that they expect a crop. South.

aceæ, of which the nightshade (Solanum) is the type. The order includes also the tobacco, ground cherry, tomato, eggplant, red pepper, and many more.

thing, and others another. Some [seeds] fell among thorns; . . . but other fell into good ground. Matt. xiii. 7, 8.

The rising from the ground, or beginning, of a stream of water or the like; a spring; a fountain. Where as the Poo out of a welle small Taketh his firste springing and his sours. Chaucer. Kings that rule Behind the hidden sources of the Nile. Addison.

A grotto or cavern under ground. [Obs.] Arbuthnot.

An implement for digging or cutting the ground, consisting usually of an oblong and nearly rectangular blade of iron, with a handle like that of a shovel. "With spade and pickax armed." Milton.

ards. -- Span counter, an old English child's game, in which one throws a counter on the ground, and another tries to hit it with his counter, or to get his counter so near it that he can span the space between them, and touch both the counters. Halliwell. "Henry V., in whose time boys went to span counter for French…