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The after sail in a ship or bark, being a fore-and-aft sail attached to a gaff; a spanker. Totten. Driver ant (Zoöl.), a species of African stinging ant; one of the visiting ants (Anomma arcens); -- so called because they move about in vast armies, and drive away or devour all insects and other small animals.…

In the Middle Ages, a large, fast-sailing galley, or cutter; a large, swift war vessel. [Hist. or Archaic] Fuller. The great dromond swinging from the quay. W. Morris.

The depth of a square sail; -- generally applied to the courses only. Ham. Nav. Encyc.

To overpower; to overcome; to extinguish; -- said especially of sound. Most men being in sensual pleasures drowned. Sir J. Davies. My private voice is drowned amid the senate. Addison. To drown up, to swallow up. [Obs.] Holland.

Having decayed spots or streaks of a whitish color; -- said of timber. Weale.

; deficient in the natural or normal supply of moisture, as rain or fluid of any kind; -- said especially: (a) Of the weather: Free from rain or mist. The weather, we agreed, was too dry for the season. Addison.

inen (or sometimes cotton) fabric, finer and lighter than canvas, -- used for the lighter sails of vessels, the sacking of beds, and sometimes for men's clothing.

An inferior kind of veneration or worship, given to the angels and saints as the servants of God.

tion or ratio of squares. Thus, in geometrical proportion, the first term to the third is said to be in a duplicate ratio of the first to the second, or as its square is to the square of the second. Thus, in 2, 4, 8, 16, the ratio of 2 to 8 is a duplicate of that of 2 to 4, or as the square of 2 is to the square of 4.…

le, peak and pine. Shak. Religious societies, though begun with excellent intentions, are said to have dwindled into factious clubs. Swift.

mena by a theory of dynamics. Those who would resolve matter into centers of force may be said to constitute the school of dynamists. Ward (Dyn. Sociol. ).

A line used to fasten the upper corners of a sail to the yard or gaff; -- also called head earing.

A mark for identification; a distinguishing mark. Money is said to have no earmark. Wharton. Flying, he [a slave] should be described by the rounding of his head, and his earmark. Robynson (More's Utopia). A set of intellectual ideas . . . have earmarks upon them, no tokens of a particular proprietor. Burrow.…

onstraint, formality, difficulty, embarrassment, etc.; facility; liberty; naturalness; -- said of manner, style, etc.; as, ease of style, of behavior, of address. True ease in writing comes from art, not chance. Pope. Whate'er he did was done with so much ease, In him alone 't was natural to please. Dryden. At ease, fr…

Freedom from effort, constraint, or formality; -- said of style, manner, etc. With painful care, but seeming easiness. Roscommon.

To veer to the east; -- said of the wind. Russell.

ney matters; as, the market is easy; -- opposed to tight. Honors are easy (Card Playing), said when each side has an equal number of honors, in which case they are not counted as points.

To chew and swallow as food; to devour; -- said especially of food not liquid; as, to eat bread. "To eat grass as oxen." Dan. iv. 25. They . . . ate the sacrifices of the dead. Ps. cvi. 28. The lean . . . did eat up the first seven fat kine. Gen. xli. 20. The lion had not eaten the carcass. 1 Kings xiii. 28. With stori…

nd under the eaves, near a window or at the door, of a house, to listen and learn what is said within doors; hence, to listen secretly to what is said in private. To eavesdrop in disguises. Milton.

nd other places where persons meet fro private intercourse, secretly listening to what is said, and then tattling it abroad. The offense is indictable at common law. Wharton.