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A step, or set of steps, for ascending and descending, in passing a fence or wall. There comes my master . . . over the stile, this way. Shak. Over this stile in the way to Doubting Castle. Bunyan.

A long garment, descending to the ankles, worn by Roman women. The stola was not allowed to be worn by courtesans, or by women who had been divorced from their husbands. Fairholt.

A direct descending blow with the edge of a sword. [Obs.] B. Jonson.

To brush against or over; to rub lightly along. Their long descending train, With rubies edged and sapphires, swept the plain. Dryden.

A curved line, such that a heavy body, descending along it by the action of gravity, will always arrive at the lowest point in the same time, wherever in the curve it may begin to fall; as, an inverted cycloid with its base horizontal is a tautochrone.

A family, race, or series of generations, descending from the same progenitor, and kept distinct, as in the case of the twelve tribes of Israel, descended from the twelve sons of Jacob. "The Lion of the tribe of Juda." Rev. v. 5. A wealthy Hebrew of my tribe. Shak.

rus) of the Seal family, native of the Arctic Ocean. The male has long and powerful tusks descending from the upper jaw. It uses these in procuring food and in fighting. It is hunted for its oil, ivory, and skin. It feeds largely on mollusks. Called also morse.

e deer (Hydropotes inermis). Both sexes are destitute of antlers, but the male has large, descending canine tusks.

A white mark in the forehead of a horse, descending almost to the nose; -- called also white-blaze.

s way." Milton. So the pure, limpid stream, when foul with stains Of rushing torrents and descending rains, Works itself clear, and as it runs, refines, Till by degrees the floating mirror shines. Addison.