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rt. to or designating a region including most of Europe and northern Africa south to the Sahara.

rogenitor; a tribe, clan, or race; kindred; house; as, the human family; the family of Abraham; the father of a family. Go ! and pretennd your family is young. Pope.

y; -- in the plural, fathers, ancestors. David slept with his fathers. 1 Kings ii. 10. Abraham, who is the father of us all. Rom. iv. 16.

A trap or snare. [Obs.] To draw the proud King Ahab into fraud. Milton. Constructive fraud (Law), an act, statement, or omission which operates as a fraud, although perhaps not intended to be such. Mozley & W. -- Pious fraud (Ch. Hist.), a fraud contrived and executed to benefit the church or accomplish some good end,…

rdle; to support and strengthen, as with a girdle. He girded up his loins, and ran before Ahab. 1 Kings xviii. 46. Gird up the loins of your mind. 1 Pet. i. 13. -- Girt up; prepared or equipped, as for a journey or for work, in allusion to the ancient custom of gathering the long flowing garments into the girdle and ti…

ful. The famine was grievous in the land. Gen. xii. 10. The thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight. Gen. xxi 11.

.), an insect of the family Coccidæ (Margarodes formicarum), found in ants' nests in the Bahamas, and having a shelly covering. They are strung like beads, and made into necklaces by the natives. -- Ground pig (Zoöl.), a large, burrowing, African rodent (Aulacodus Swinderianus) about two feet long, allied to the porcu…

o Ham or his descendants. Hamitic languages, the group of languages spoken mainly in the Sahara, Egypt, Galla, and Somâli Land, and supposed to be allied to the Semitic. Keith Johnson.

lantic coast of Africa, in December, January, and February, blowing from the interior or Sahara. It is usually accompanied by a haze which obscures the sun.

Specifically, a tomahawk. Buried was the bloody hatchet. Longfellow.

An appellative of Abraham or of one of his descendants, esp. in the line of Jacob; an Israelite; a Jew. There came one that had escaped and told Abram the Hebrew. Gen. xiv. 13.

the decomposition of animal or vegetable matter. It is a valuable constituent of soils. Graham.

Hydrogen; -- called also in view of its supposed metallic nature. Graham.

f or pertaining to the aborigines, or Indians, of America; as, Indian wars; the Indian tomahawk.

Having the two ends unequal, as in the clam, quahaug, and most lamellibranch shells.

A descendant of Ishmael (the son of Abraham and Hagar), of whom it was said, "His hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him." Gen. xvi. 12.

A hot southwesterly wind in Egypt, coming from the Sahara. [Written also Khamseen.]

ine found from Delaware southward along the coast; old field pine (Pinus Tæda). Also, P. Bahamensis, of the West Indies. -- Loblolly tree (Bot.), a name of several West Indian trees, having more or less leathery foliage, but alike in no other respect; as Pisonia subcordata, Cordia alba, and Cupania glabra.…

hing our own. In that part of the world which was first inhabited, even as low down as Abraham's time, they wandered with their flocks and herds. Locke.

A Sanskritic language of western India, prob. descended from the Maharastri Prakrit, spoken by the Marathas and neighboring peoples. It has an abundant literature dating from the 13th century. It has a book alphabet nearly the same as Devanagari and a cursive script translation between the Devanagari and the Gujarati.…