Search the Dictionary

o render stale, unsavory, or worthless. (b) To inform against. [Colloq.] How far the very custom of hearing anything spouted withers and blows upon a fine passage, may be seen in those speeches from [Shakespeare's] Henry V. which are current in the mouths of schoolboys. C. Lamb. A lady's maid whose character had been b…

l she was five and thirty. Blackw. Mag. Artists have abandoned their Bohemian manners and customs nowadays. W. Black. Bohemian chatterer, or Bohemian waxwing (Zoöl.), a small bird of Europe and America (Ampelis garrulus); the waxwing. -- Bohemian glass, a variety of hard glass of fine quality, made in Bohemia. It is o…

goods placed in a bonded warehouse; goods, for the duties on which bonds are given at the customhouse. -- Bonded warehouse, a warehouse in which goods on which the duties are unpaid are stored under bond and in the joint custody of the importer, or his agent, and the customs officers.

A custom, as in some ancient boroughs, by which lands and tenements descend to the youngest son, instead of the eldest; or, if the owner have no issue, to the youngest brother. Blackstone.

To fight with the fists; to box. Bruising was considered a fine, manly, old English custom. Thackeray.

To sleep on the same bed without undressing; -- applied to the custom of a man and woman, especially lovers, thus sleeping. Bartlett. Van Corlear stopped occasionally in the villages to eat pumpkin pies, dance at country frolics, and bundle with the Yankee lasses. W. Irving.

to lay aside the instruments of war, and make peace; -- a phrase used in allusion to the custom observed by the North American Indians, of burying a tomahawk when they conclude a peace.

One accustomed to bushfighting. Parkman.

One accustomed to beat about, or travel through, bushes. [U.S.] They were gallant bushwhackers, and hunters of raccoons by moonlight. W. Irving.

A bad custom or habit; an insatiable desire; as, cacoëthes scribendi, "The itch for writing". Addison.

rchant is carrying a large stock; a farm carries a mortgage; a broker carries stock for a customer; to carry a life insurance. Carry arms (Mil. Drill), a command of the Manual of Arms directing the soldier to hold his piece in the right hand, the barrel resting against the hollow of the shoulder in a nearly perpendicul…

, in large retail stores, a messenger who carries the money received by the salesman from customers to a cashier, and returns the proper change. [Colloq.] -- Cash credit, an account with a bank by which a person or house, having given security for repayment, draws at pleasure upon the bank to the extent of an amount ag…

A custom of the Celts, or an idiom of their language. Warton.

A system of rules and ceremonies, enjoined by law, or established by custom, in religious worship, social intercourse, or the courts of princes; outward form. The gorgeous ceremonial of the Burgundian court. Prescott.

According to prescribed or customary rules and forms; devoted to forms and ceremonies; formally respectful; punctilious. "Ceremonious phrases." Addison. Too ceremonious and traditional. Shak.

Ar act or series of acts, often of a symbolical character, prescribed by law, custom, or authority, in the conduct of important matters, as in the performance of religious duties, the transaction of affairs of state, and the celebration of notable events; as, the ceremony of crowning a sovereign; the ceremonies observe…

of a tribe of North American Indians now living in the state of Washington, noted for the custom of flattening their skulls. Chinooks also called Flathead Indians.

portion of the paste or cake in boiling water or milk. Chocolate house, a house in which customers may be served with chocolate. -- Chocolate nut. See Cacao.

A watchman; an officer of customs or police. [India]

A customhouse where transit duties are levied. [China] S. W. Williams.