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To look with a sudden, rapid cast of the eye; to snatch a momentary or hasty view. The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven. Shak.

A moment: as, for a gliff. [Scot.] Sir W. Scott.

mment; a running commentary. All this, without a gloss or comment, He would unriddle in a moment. Hudibras. Explaining the text in short glosses. T. Baker.

Of importance; momentous; weighty; influential; sedate; serious; - - said of character, relations, etc.; as, grave deportment, character, influence, etc. Most potent, grave, and reverend seigniors. Shak. A grave and prudent law, full of moral equity. Milton.

A distortion of the countenance, whether habitual, from affectation, or momentary aad occasional, to express some feeling, as contempt, disapprobation, complacency, etc.; a smirk; a made-up face. Moving his face into such a hideons grimace, that every feature of it appeared under a different distortion. Addison.…

eenish, eel-like body, and is possessed of electric power. One fearful shock, fearful but momentary, like from the electric blow of the gymnotus. De Quincey.

The representation made of the aspect of the heavens at the moment of a person's birth, by which the astrologer professed to foretell the events of the person's life; especially, the sign of the zodiac rising above the horizon at such a moment.

is to be raised. When the rush of water through the main pipe d shuts the valve at a, the momentum of the current thus suddenly checked forces part of it into the air chamber b, and up the pipe c, its return being prevented by a valve at the entrance to the air chamber, while the dropping of the valve a by its own weig…

ck ball, cooled by the evaporation of the ether within, is soon covered with dew; at this moment, the inclosed thermometer gives the dew-point, and this, compared with the reading of one in the air, determines the humidity.

virtue of its weight and its motion; the force with which any body is driven or impelled; momentum.

To signify; to purport; to be of moment. "For that . . . importeth to the work." Bacon.

The quality or state of being important; consequence; weight; moment; significance. Thy own importance know, Nor bound thy narrow views to things below. Pope.

Something made or done offhand, at the moment, or without previous study; an extemporaneous composition, address, or remark.

nity. Blackstone. How doth the little busy bee Improve each shining hour. I. Watts. Those moments were diligently improved. Gibbon. True policy, as well as good faith, in my opinion, binds us to improve the occasion. Washington.

To invent, or provide, offhand, or on the spur of the moment; as, he improvised a hammer out of a stone.

The effect of an impelling force; motion produced by a sudden or momentary force.

The act of impelling or driving onward, or the state of being impelled; the sudden or momentary agency of a body in motion on another body; also, the impelling force, or impulse. "The impulsion of the air." Bacon.

Acting momentarily, or by impulse; not continuous; -- said of forces.

insulated copper wire, surrounded by another coil of very fine insulated wire, in which a momentary current is induced, when a current (as from a voltaic battery), passing through the inner coil, is made, broken, or varied. The inner coil has within it a core of soft iron, and is connected at its terminals with a conde…

Persuading us that something must be indulged to public manners. Jer. Taylor. Yet, yet a moment, one dim ray of light Indulge, dread Chaos, and eternal Night! Pope.