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To reduce the height of; as, to lower a fence or wall; to lower a chimney or turret.

to fail or decline; as, to maintain a certain degree of heat in a furnace; to maintain a fence or a railroad; to maintain the digestive process or powers of the stomach; to maintain the fertility of soil; to maintain present reputation.

, or partial cover, for the face, used for disguise or protection; as, a dancer's mask; a fencer's mask; a ball player's mask.

That which incloses or fences in; a boundary; a limit; a fence; a palisade. "Within one pale or hedge." Robynson (More's Utopia).

Pales, in general; a fence formed with pales or pickets; a limit; an inclosure. They moved within the paling of order and decorum. De Quincey.

stake, one end of which is set firmly in the ground, and the other is sharpened; also, a fence formed of such stakes set in the ground as a means of defense.

te; neither present nor future; gone by; elapsed; ended; spent; as, past troubles; past offences. "Past ages." Milton. Past master. See under Master.

A pointed pale, used in marking fences.

A small vessel propelled by sails or oars, formerly employed as a tender, or for coast defence; -- called originally, spynace or spyne.

A hedge or fence formed of branches of trees interlaced, or plashed. [Obs.] Carew.

A piece of leather stuffed or padded, worn by fencers to protect the breast. Dryden.

A contrivance to prevent an animal from leaping or breaking through fences. It consists of a yoke with a pole inserted, pointed forward. [U.S.] Poke bonnet, a bonnet with a straight, projecting front.

ly when intended as a stay or support to something else; a pillar; as, a hitching post; a fence post; the posts of a house. They shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper doorpost of the houses. Ex. xii. 7. Then by main force pulled up, and on his shoulders bore, The gates of Azza, p…

Skill or dexterity acquired by use; expertness. [R.] "His nice fence and his active practice." Shak.

; to provide; as, to prepare ammunition and provisions for troops; to prepare ships for defence; to prepare an entertainment. Milton. That they may prepare a city for habitation. Ps. cvii. 36

lay before a court as an object of inquiry; to give notice officially of, as a crime of offence; to find or represent judicially; as, a grand jury present certain offenses or nuisances, or whatever they think to be public injuries.

The notice taken by a grand jury of any offence from their own knowledge or observation, without any bill of indictment laid before them, as, the presentment of a nuisance, a libel, or the like; also, an inquisition of office and indictment by a grand jury; an official accusation presented to a tribunal by the grand ju…

support, or prevent from falling, by placing something under or against; as, to prop up a fence or an old building; (Fig.) to sustain; to maintain; as, to prop a declining state. Shak. Till the bright mountains prop the incumbent sky. Pope. For being not propp'd by ancestry. Shak. I prop myself upon those few supports…

To hold out; to stretch forth. [Obs.] With his protended lance he makes defence. Dryden .

t.), narrow molded planks reaching from the top of the stern to the gangway, serving as a fence to the quarter-deck. -- Quarter sessions (Eng. Law), a general court of criminal jurisdiction held quarterly by the justices of peace in counties and by the recorders in boroughs. -- Quarter square (Math.), the fourth part…