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Webster’s Dictionary (1828)



74 words match “PLUME”

PUFF n.
r (Vipera, or Clotho, arietans) is the largest species, becoming over four feet long. The plumed puff adder (C. cornuta) has a plumelike appendage over each eye. (b) A North American harmless snake (Heterodon platyrrhinos) which has the power of puffing up its body. Called also hog-nose snake, flathead, spreading adder…
RUFFLE v.
To erect in a ruff, as feathers. [the swan] ruffles her pure cold plume. Tennyson.
SEA FEATHER n.
Any gorgonian which branches in a plumelike form.
SERPULA n.
usually irregularly contorted, but is sometimes spirally coiled. The worm has a wreath of plumelike and often bright-colored gills around its head, and usually an operculum to close the aperture of its tube when it retracts.
SNOWY a.
andidissima), found in the Southern United States, and southward to Chili; -- called also plume bird. -- Snowy lemming (Zoöl.), the collared lemming (Cuniculus torquatus), which turns white in winter. -- Snowy owl (Zoöl.), a large arctic owl (Nyctea Scandiaca, or N. nivea) common all over the northern parts of the Un…
STEADY a.
m in standing or position; not tottering or shaking; fixed; firm. "The softest, steadiest plume." Keble. Their feet steady, their hands diligent, their eyes watchful, and their hearts resolute. Sir P. Sidney.
STOOP v.
ce; to souse; to swoop. The bird of Jove, stooped from his aëry tour, Two birds of gayest plume before him drove. Milton.
SUPERADD v.
xtremely to heart that he had not the nightingale's voice superadded to the beauty of his plumes. L'Estrange.
TAIL n.
ases of the tail quills. They are sometimes much longer than the quills, and form elegant plumes. Those above the quills are called the upper tail coverts, and those below, the under tail coverts. -- Tail end, the latter end; the termination; as, the tail end of a contest. [Colloq.] -- Tail joist. (Arch.) Same as Tail…
TROOP n.
Soldiers, collectively; an army; -- now generally used in the plural. Farewell the plumed troop, and the big wars. Shak. His troops moved to victory with the precision of machines. Macaulay.
UMBRELLA n.
f a mass of soft, glossy blue feathers curved outward at the tips. It also has a cervical plume consisting of a long, cylindrical dermal process covered with soft hairy feathers. Called also dragoon bird. -- Umbrella leaf (Bot.), an American perennial herb (Dyphylleia cymosa), having very large peltate and lobed radic…
UNBARBED a.
Destitute of bards, or of reversed points, hairs, or plumes; as, an unbarded feather.
VAIL v.
, in token of inferiority, reverence, submission, or the like. France must vail her lofty-plumed crest! Shak. Without vailing his bonnet or testifying any reverence for the alleged sanctity of the relic. Sir. W. Scott.
WINGED a.
Fanned with wings; swarming with birds. "The winged air darked with plumes." Milton.
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