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.) An amphibious animal of the genus Rana and related genera, of many species. Frogs swim rapidly, and take long leaps on land. Many of the species utter loud notes in the springtime.

Inarticulate sounds rapidly uttered; as of fowls.

, and a frontal shield, belonging to the family Rallidae. They are remarkable for running rapidly over marshes and on floating plants. The purple gallinule of America is Ionornis Martinica, that of the Old World is Porphyrio porphyrio. The common European gallinule (Gallinula chloropus) is also called moor hen, water h…

Fig.: To go rapidly or carelessly, as in making a hasty examination. Such superficial ideas he may collect in galloping over it. Locke.

Going at a gallop; progressing rapidly; as, a galloping horse.

To bring together, or nearer together, in masonry, as where the width of a fireplace is rapidly diminished to the width of the flue, or the like.

To speak rapidly and inarticulately. Shak.

To move quickly, appearing and disappearing rapidly; to be visible only for an instant at a time; to move interruptedly; to twinkle. And all along the forum and up the sacred seat, His vulture eye pursued the trip of those small glancing feet. Macaulay.

e gently and smoothly; to pass along without noise, violence, or apparent effort; to pass rapidly and easily, or with a smooth, silent motion, as a river in its channel, a bird in the air, a skater over ice. The river glideth at his own sweet will. Wordsworth.

mall marine isopod crustacean (Limnoria lignorum or L. terebrans), which burrows into and rapidly destroys submerged timber, such as the piles of wharves, both in Europe and America.

f an automatically vibrating hammer between a contact piece and an electromagnet, or of a rapidly moving piece mechanically driven.

ously; vehemently; vigorously; energetically; as, to press, to blow, to rain hard; hence, rapidly; as, to run hard.

A genus of marine decapod crustaceans, which burrow rapidly in the sand by pushing themselves backward; -- called also bait bug. See Illust. under Anomura.

iant colors and peculiar habit of hovering about flowers while vibrating their wings very rapidly with a humming noise. They feed both upon the nectar of flowers and upon small insects. The common humming bird or ruby-throat of the Eastern United States is Trochilus culubris. Several other species are found in the West…

To move rapidly; to wheel or rush suddenly or with violence; to whirl round rapidly; to skirmish. Now hurtling round, advantage for to take. Spenser. Down the hurtling cataract of the ages. R. L. Stevenson.

originated in 1776 by Adam Weishaupt, professor of canon law at Ingolstadt, which spread rapidly for a time, but ceased after a few years.

rical circuit; a vibrating spring or tuning fork, arranged to make and break a circuit at rapidly recurring intervals, by the action of the current itself.

To talk rapidly, indistinctly, or unintelligibly; to utter gibberish or nonsense; to chatter. Swift.

er, sometimes from a cloud to the earth. The sound produced by the electricity in passing rapidly through the atmosphere constitutes thunder.

To fall; to sink; to grow less; to diminish; to decrease; as, the river lowered as rapidly as it rose.