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The act, method, or process of laying a groundwork or foundation; hence, elementary instruction; the act or process of applying a ground, as of color, to wall paper, cotton cloth, etc.; a basis.

Without ground or foundation; wanting cause or reason for support; not authorized; false; as, groundless fear; a groundless report or assertion. -- Ground"less*ly, adv. -- Ground"less*ness, n.

That which forms the foundation or support of anything; the basis; the essential or fundamental part; first principle. Dryden.

The principal stone in a foundation; the chief or corner stone. Ps. cxviii. 22.

The act or process of instituting; as: (a) Establishment; foundation; enactment; as, the institution of a school. The institution of God's law is described as being established by solemn injunction. Hooker.

s by upheaval. Inverted arch (Arch.), an arch placed with crown downward; -- much used in foundations.

distant, either prior or posterior; as, not long before; not long after; long before the foundation of Rome; long after the Conquest.

ions. Mascled armor, armor composed of small lozenge-shaped scales of metal fastened on a foundation of leather or quilted cloth.

To dig away, or otherwise remove, the substratum or foundation of; to lay a mine under; to sap; to undermine; hence, to ruin or destroy by slow degrees or secret means. They mined the walls. Hayward. Too lazy to cut down these immense trees, the spoilers... had mined them, and placed a quantity of gunpowder in the cavi…

rgan stop, comprising from two to five ranges of pipes, used only in combination with the foundation and compound stops; -- called also furniture stop. It consists of high harmonics, or overtones, of the ground tone.

o go, in any manner, from one place or position to another; as, a ship moves rapidly. The foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because he was wroth. Ps. xviii. 7. On the green bank I sat and listened long, ... Nor till her lay was ended could I move. Dryden.

Ezek. xli. 6. Bright-harnessed angels sit in order serviceable. Milton. Good order is the foundation of all good things. Burke.

To turn or throw from a basis, foundation, or position; to overset; as, to overturn a carriage or a building.

Blocks of stone or concrete heaped loosely in the water to make a foundation (as for a sea wall), a mole, etc.

r standard, for supporting a journal, as of a shaft. It is usually bolted to the frame or foundation of a machine, and is often furnished with journal boxes, and a movable cover, or cap, for tightening the bearings by means of bolts; -- called also pillar block, or plumber block. -- Pillow lace, handmade lace wrought…

The laying of the first courses of stone in a foundation. [Eng.]

off; as, to pluck off the skin. -- to pluck up. (a) To tear up by the roots or from the foundation; to eradicate; to exterminate; to destroy; as, to pluck up a plant; to pluk up a nation. Jer. xii. 17. (b) To gather up; to summon; as, to pluck up courage.

A low wall, serving as a foundation, a substructure, or a terrace wall. It is especially employed by archæologists in two senses:

ium or equiponderance. Nor yet was earth suspended in the sky; Nor poised, did on her own foundation lie. Dryden.

itution by which any institution is organized; the recognized principles which lie at the foundation of any human institution. Nor is possible that any form of polity, much less polity ecclesiastical, should be good, unless God himself be author of it. Hooker.