Search the Dictionary

Hence, government of a community, state, or nation by the joint action of the mass of people constituting such a civil body; also, the state of being so governed; democratic government; democracy. It is to self-government, the great principle of popular representation and administration, -- the system that lets in all…

An agent in the massacres in Paris, committed in patriotic frenzy, on the 22d of September, 1792.

A hymn introduced in the Mass on certain festival days, and recited or sung immediately before the gospel, and after the gradual or introit, whence the name. Bp. Fitzpatrick. Originally the sequence was called a Prose, because its early form was rhythmical prose. Shipley.

oard pastered with shadows That under other men's protection break in Without invitement. Massinger. Shadow of death, darkness or gloom like that caused by the presence or the impending of death. Ps. xxiii. 4.

A mass of iron on which the operation of smelting has failed of its intended effect; -- so called from Shadrach, one of the three Hebrews who came forth unharmed from the fiery furnace of Nebuchadnezzar. (See Dan. iii. 26, 27.)

To subject to the process of shindling, as a mass of iron from the pudding furnace.

A thick mass of bushy hair; as, a head covered with a shock of sandy hair.

Small globular masses of lead, of various sizes, -- used chiefly for killing game; as, bird shot; buckshot.

Samples taken for assay from a molten metallic mass pouring a portion into water, to granulate it.

Of or pertaining to Sicily or its inhabitants. Sicilian vespers, the great massacre of the French in Sicily, in the year 1282, on the evening of Easter Monday, at the hour of vespers.

ctor traversed by an oscillatory current of high frequency (as lightning) and neighboring masses of metal, or between different parts of the same conductor.

Carbonate of iron, an important ore of iron occuring generally in cleavable masses, but also in rhombohedral crystals. It is of a light yellowish brown color. Called also sparry iron, spathic iron.

shed from universal succession, by which an estate descended in intestacy to the heirs in mass. -- Singular term (Logic), a term which represents or stands for a single individual.

The descent of a mass of earth, rock, or snow down a hill or mountain side; as, a land slide, or a snow slide; also, the track of bare rock left by a land slide.

The dead mass separating from a foul sore; the dead part which separates from the living tissue in mortification.

Small floating pieces of ice, or masses of saturated snow. Kane.

The gross amount; the mass; the lump. [Scot.]

on of cereal grains producing a swelling which is at length resolved into a powdery sooty mass. It is caused by parasitic fungi of the genus Ustilago. Ustilago segetum, or U. Carbo, is the commonest kind; that of Indian corn is Ustilago maydis.

A round mass of snow pressed or roller together, or anything resembling such a mass.

A flake, or small filmy mass, of snow.