Search the Dictionary

A member of a race forming the chief pre-Malay population of the Malay Archipelago, and probably sprung from a mixture of Polynesian and Mongoloid immigrants. According to Keane, the autochthonous Negritos were largely expelled by the Caucasian Polynesians, themselves followed by Mongoloid peoples of Indo-Chinese affin…

ngs, springs which flow at intervals, not apparently dependent upon rain or drought. They probably owe their intermittent action to their being connected with natural reservoirs in hills or mountains by passages having the form of a siphon, the water beginning to flow when it has accumulated so as to fill the upper par…

from coal-tar naphtha, as an oily liquid. It is a member of the quinoline series, and is probably identical with lepidine.

A command to a horse, probably meaning "stand still." [Obs.] Chaucer.

the Latin from the Greek, which received it from a Phoenician source, the ultimate origin probably being Egyptian,. Etymologically K is most nearly related to c, g, h (which see).

ts fabled, in an Irish story, to have fought till nothing was left but their tails. It is probably a parable of a local contest between Kilkenny and Irishtown, which impoverished both towns.

o knock under, to yield; to submit; to acknowledge one's self conquered; -- an expression probably borrowed from the practice of knocking under the table with the knuckles, when conquered. "Colonel Esmond knocked under to his fate." Thackeray.

-- Lamb's wool. (a) The wool of a lamb. (b) Ale mixed with the pulp of roasted apples; -- probably from the resemblance of the pulp of roasted apples to lamb's wool. [Obs.] Goldsmith.

e primitive Indo-European stops, or mute consonants, underwent in the Teutonic languages, probably as early as the 3d century b. c. , often called the first Lautverschiebung, sound shifting, or consonant shifting. (b) A somewhat similar set of changes taking place in the High German dialects (less fully in modern liter…

tree. (a) (Bot.) A West Indian name for the tropical, leguminous tree, Leucæna glauca; -- probably so called from the glaucous color of the foliage. (b) (Chem.) Lead crystallized in arborescent forms from a solution of some lead salt, as by suspending a strip of zinc in lead acetate. -- Mock lead, a miner's term for b…

A bow, esp. in the phrase to make a leg; probably from drawing the leg backward in bowing. [Obs.] He that will give a cap and make a leg in thanks for a favor he never received. Fuller.

n of the hands and feet with destruction of the bones and joints. It is incurable, and is probably contagious.Mycobacterium leprae, curable in most cases by therapy with a combination of antibiotics, but cases resistant to therapy are increasing.

Likely; probably. "Like enough it will." Shak.

In all probability; probably. While man was innocent he was likely ignorant of nothing that imported him to know. Glanvill.

Formerly, some appurtenance of a vessel which was used in changing her course; -- probably a large paddle put over the lee bow to help bring her head nearer to the wind.

The lotus of the lotuseaters, probably a tree found in Northern Africa, Sicily, Portugal, and Spain (Zizyphus Lotus), the fruit of which is mildly sweet. It was fabled by the ancients to make strangers who ate of it forget their native country, or lose all desire to return to it.

Iron sesquioxide in isometric form, probably a pseudomorph after magnetite.

Pertaining to, or designating, an acid obtained from molasses or glucose, and probably identical with saccharic acid. See Saccharic.

ornithes, found in New Zealand. They are allied to the apteryx and the ostrich. They were probably exterminated by the natives before New Zealand was discovered by Europeans. Some species were much larger than the ostrich.

A stuff made in imitation of velvet; -- probably the same as mock velvet. [Obs.] Our rich mockado doublet. Ford.