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- Detonating powder, any powder or solid substance, as fulminate of mercury, which when struck, explodes with violence and a loud report. -- Detonating primer, a primer exploded by a fuse; -- used to explode gun cotton in blasting operations. -- Detonating tube, a strong tube of glass, usually graduated, closed at on…

An attachment to a clock by which the quarter hours are struck upon bells of different tones.

Pope. A society lacerated and dismembered. Gladstone. By whose hands the blow should be struck which would dismember that once mighty empire. Buckle.

A small truck with a single wide roller used for moving heavy beams, columns, etc., in bridge building.

The nail or knob on which in ancient doors the knocker struck; -- hence the old saying, "As dead as a doornail."

The character of a doughface; truckling pliability.

A coin, either of gold or silver, of several countries in Europe; originally, one struck in the dominions of a duke.

alizing bar (Railroad Mach.), a lever connecting two axle boxes, or two springs in a car truck or locomotive, to equalize the pressure on the axles.

urnish with a feather or feathers, as an arrow or a cap. An eagle had the ill hap to be struck with an arrow feathered from her own wing. L'Estrange.

A mock blow or attack on one part when another part is intended to be struck; -- said of certain movements in fencing, boxing, war, etc.

. This is sometimes omitted, making the verb transitive. [He] cowardly fled, not having struck one stroke. Shak. Flee fornication. 1 Cor. vi. 18. So fled his enemies my warlike father. Shak.

A silver coin of Florence, first struck in the twelfth century, and noted for its beauty. The name is given to different coins in different countries. The florin of England, first minted in 1849, is worth two shillings, or about 48 cents; the florin of the Netherlands, about 40 cents; of Austria, about 36 cents.…

lies to a considerable distance, usually high in the air; also, the flight of a ball so struck; as, it was caught on the fly. Black fly, Cheese fly, Dragon fly, etc. See under Black, Cheese, etc. -- Fly agaric (Bot.), a mushroom (Agaricus muscarius), having a narcotic juice which, in sufficient quantities, is poisonou…

weak or insipid. He [Prof. Ayton] would purge his book of much offensive matter, if he struck out epithets which are in the bad taste of the forcible-feeble school. N. Brit. Review.

lace; most advanced; chief in rank or dignity; as, the foremost troops of an army. THat struck the foremost man of all this world. Shak.

A movable furrowed piece of steel struck by the flint, to throw sparks into the pan, in an early form of flintlock. Knight.

, wherein the offender was made to run between two files of men facing one another, who struck him as he passed. To run the gantlet, to suffer the punishment of the gantlet; hence, to go through the ordeal of severe criticism or controversy, or ill-treatment at many hands. Winthrop ran the gantlet of daily slights. Pal…

f an alloy of copper and tin, shaped like a disk with upturned rim, and producing, when struck, a harsh and resounding noise. O'er distant deserts sounds the Tartar gong. Longfellow.

litical law; crime; criminality; offense against right. Satan had not answer, but stood struck With guilt of his own sin. Milton.

overeigns in 1817. The guinea, so called from the Guinea gold out of which it was first struck, was proclaimed in 1663, and to go for twenty shillings; but it never went for less than twenty-one shillings. Pinkerton. Guinea corn. (Bot.) See Durra. -- Guinea Current (Geog.), a current in the Atlantic Ocean setting sout…