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In Persia, a punishment of capital offenders, by laying them on the back in a covered boat, where they are left to perish.

A guard to protect or defend the person; a lifeguard.

A frame or fender of rope or junk, laid out at the sides or bows of a vessel to secure it from injury by floating ice.

A string used by the Turks for strangling offenders. Bowstring bridge, a bridge formed of an arch of timber or iron, often braced, the thrust of which is resisted by a tie forming a chord of the arch. -- Bowstring girder, an arched beam strengthened by a tie connecting its two ends. -- Bowstring hemp (Bot.), the tena…

mise. An attempt to bribe, though unsuccessful, has been holden to be criminal, and the offender may be indicted. Bouvier. The bard may supplicate, but cannot bribe. Goldsmith.

To shield; to defend. [Obs.] Can Oxford, that did ever fence the right, Now buckler falsehood with a pedigree Shak.

An elastic apparatus or fender, for deadening the jar caused by the collision of bodies; as, a buffer at the end of a railroad car.

That which secures against an enemy, or defends from attack; any means of defense or protection. The royal navy of England hath ever been its greatest defense, . . . the floating bulwark of our island. Blackstone.

f candle. -- Excommunication by inch of candle, a form of excommunication in which the offender is allowed time to repent only while a candle burns. -- Not worth the candle, not worth the cost or trouble. -- Rush candle, a candle made of the pith of certain rushes, peeled except on one side, and dipped in grease. -…

A very broad and heavy wooden collar which certain offenders in China are compelled to wear as a punishment.

tal punishment. Many crimes that are capital among us. Swift. To put to death a capital offender. Milton.

g of nine pieces of knotted line or cord fastened to a handle; -- formerly used to flog offenders on the bare back. -- Cat's cradle, game played, esp. by children, with a string looped on the fingers so, as to resemble small cradle. The string is transferred from the fingers of one to those of another, at each transfe…

individual jurors returned. -- Peremptory challenge, a privilege sometimes allowed to defendants, of challenging a certain number of jurors (fixed by statute in different States) without assigning any cause. -- Principal challenge, that which the law allows to be sufficient if found to be true.

nother's honor or rights; or one who acts or speaks in behalf of a person or a cause; a defender; an advocate; a hero. A stouter champion never handled sword. Shak. Champions of law and liberty. Fisher Ames.

n placed at the bow or stern of an armed vessel, and used when pursuing an enemy, or in defending the vessel when pursued. -- Chase port (Naut.), a porthole from which a chase gun is fired. -- Stern chase (Naut.), a chase in which the pursuing vessel follows directly in the wake of the vessel pursued.…

s, On equal terms to give him chastesement! Shak. I have borne chastisement; I will not offend any more. Job xxxiv. 31.

ron barrel traversed with iron-pointed spikes or spears, five or six feet long, used to defend a passage, stop a breach, or impede the advance of cavalry, etc. Obstructions of chain, boom, and cheval-de-frise. W. Irving.

Disposition to forgive and spare, as offenders; mildness of temper; gentleness; tenderness; mercy. Great clemency and tender zeal toward their subjects. Stowe. They had applied for the royal clemency. Macaulay.

nch dug in the botton of a dry moat, and extending across it, to enable the besieged to defend it by a raking fire.

A form of defense in the action of replevin, by which the defendant insists that the goods were lawfully taken, as a distress, by defendant, acting as servant for another. [Eng.] Cowell. Mozley & W.