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A genus of perennial plants belonging to the natural order Liliaceæ, and having erect much branched stems, and very slender branchlets which are sometimes mistaken for leaves. Asparagus racemosus is a shrubby climbing plant with fragrant flowers. Specifically: The Asparagus officinalis, a species cultivated in gardens.…

Trial; attempt; essay. [Obs.] Chaucer. I am withal persuaded that it may prove much more easy in the assay than it now seems at distance. Milton.

tical or pretended concurrence. Abject flattery and indiscriminate assentation degrade as much as indiscriminate contradiction and noisy debate disgust. Ld. Chesterfield.

cation or attention, particularly to some business or enterprise; diligence. I have, with much pains and assiduity, qualified myself for a nomenclator. Addison.

Pretentious; taking much upon one's self; presumptuous. Burke.

A thick liquid residuum obtained in the distillation of Russian petroleum, much used as fuel.

A genus of ophiurans having the arms much branched.

to reduce to concord; to reconcile, as parties at variance; to appease. [Obs.] I would do much To atone them, for the love I bear to Cassio. Shak.

atonement be can make for it is, to warn others. Spectator. The Phocians behaved with, so much gallantry, that they were thought to have made a sufficient atonement for their former offense. Potter.

A person much given to melancholy; a hypochondriac. I. Disraeli.

phonograph, controlled by the recording stylus on the principle of the relay. It produces much clearer and louder tones than does the ordinary vibrating disk reproducer.

Weight; heaviness; as, a woman of much avoirdupois. [Colloq.] Avoirdupois weight, a system of weights by which coarser commodities are weighed, such as hay, grain, butter, sugar, tea.

Yes; yea; -- a word expressing assent, or an affirmative answer to a question. It is much used in viva voce voting in legislative bodies, etc.

To talk much; to chatter; to prate.

re horizontal strata (Tertiary deposits) have been often eroded into fantastic forms, and much intersected by canons, and where lack of wood, water, and forage increases the difficulty of traversing the country, whence the name, first given by the Canadian French, Mauvaises Terres (bad lands).

formed of small fishes or shrimps, pounded up with salt and spices, and then dried. It is much esteemed in China.

A species of very large rat (Mus giganteus), found in India and Ceylon. It does much injury to rice fields and gardens.

A method of reducing corpulence by avoiding food containing much farinaceous, saccharine, or oily matter; -- so called from William Banting of London.

Threadbare; much worn. It appears by their bare liveries that they live by your bare words. Shak.

Tyndale. Where there is the barking of the belly, there no other commands will be heard, much less obeyed. Fuller.