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To ornament with raised work; to variegate; to diversify. Whose skirt with gold was fretted all about. Spenser. Yon gray lines, That fret the clouds, are messengers of day. Shak.

To play at any sport or diversion.

s, plants, animals, etc., and applies the principles of physics to the explanation of the diversities of climate, productions, etc. -- Political geography treats of the different countries into which earth is divided with regard to political and social and institutions and conditions.

To prate; to jabber; to babble. [Obs.] Here many, clepid filosophirs, glavern diversely. Wyclif.

One of several swimming birds or divers, of the genus Colymbus (formerly Podiceps), aud allied genera, found in the northern parts of America, Europe, and Asia. They have strong, sharp bills, and lobate toes.

hern sea birds, allied to the auks. They have short legs, placed far back, and are expert divers and swimmers.

Pertaining to athletic exercises intended for health, defense, or diversion; -- said of games or exercises, as running, leaping, wrestling, throwing the discus, the javelin, etc.; also, pertaining to disciplinary exercises for the intellect; athletic; as, gymnastic exercises, contests, etc.

ment desire; -- usually with for or after; as, to hanker after fruit; to hanker after the diversions of the town. Addison. He was hankering to join his friend. J. A. Symonds.

rature, philosophy, etc.; -- usually, but not necessarily, said in reproach. New opinions Divers and dangerous, which are heresies, And, not reformed, may prove pernicious. Shak. After the study of philosophy began in Greece, and the philosophers, disagreeing amongst themselves, had started many questions . . . because…

nt of equality, in any respect; lack of uniformity; disproportion; unevenness; disparity; diversity; as, an inequality in size, stature, numbers, power, distances, motions, rank, property, etc. There is so great an inequality in the length of our legs and arms as makes it impossible for us to walk on all four. Ray. Not…

inhaling damp or cold air, noxious gases, dust, etc.; also, the respiratory apparatus for divers.

s, or the like, in a groundwork of some other material; to form an ornamental surface; to diversify or adorn with insertions. Look,how the floor of heaven Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold. Shak. But these things are . . . borrowed by the monks to inlay their story. Milton.

To diversify or adorn with things set or scattered at intervals; to place something at intervals in or among; as, to intersperse a book with pictures. Which space is interspersed with small islands and rock. Cook.

or register in an account of goods; as, a merchant inventories his stock. I will give out divers schedules of my beauty; it shall be inventoried, and every particle and utensil labeled. Shak.

a laughingstock. Then let me be your jest; I deserve it. Shak. In jest, for mere sport or diversion; not in truth and reality; not in earnest. And given in earnest what I begged in jest. Shak. -- Jest book, a book containing a collection of jests, jokes, and amusing anecdotes; a Joe Miller.

quence, of style, and of music; many kinds of government; various kinds of soil, etc. How diversely Love doth his pageants play, And snows his power in variable kinds ! Spenser. There is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. I Cor. xv. 39. Diogenes was asked in a ki…

Any enfeebling disease. [Obs.] Sick men with divers languors. Wyclif (Luke iv. 40).

sition, to any rigor of actions. Eikon Basilike. Silly women, laden with sins,led away by divers lusts. 2 Tim. iii. 6 (Rev. Ver.).

een beings equal in nature, though unequal in circumstances. Collier. He that thinks that diversion may not lie in hard labor, forgets the early rising and hard riding of huntsmen. Locke.

Exhibited at divers times or in various ways; -- used to qualify nouns in the singular number. "The manifold wisdom of God." Eph. iii.