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a quarrel; to defy. "Do you bite your thumb at us " Shak. -- To bite the tongue, to keep silence. Shak.

r instrument, commonly of tin, used by boys for discharging paper wads and other light missiles.

d in the peat bogs of Ireland. -- Bog earth (Min.), a soil composed for the most part of silex and partially decomposed vegetable fiber. P. Cyc. -- Bog moss. (Bot.) Same as Sphagnum. -- Bog myrtle (Bot.), the sweet gale. -- Bog ore. (Min.) (a) An ore of iron found in boggy or swampy land; a variety of brown iron or…

A kind of missile weapon consisting of one, two, or more balls of stone, iron, or other material, attached to the ends of a leather cord; -- used by the Gauchos of South America, and others, for hurling at and entangling an animal.

A shaft or missile intended to be shot from a crossbow or catapult, esp. a short, stout, blunt-headed arrow; a quarrel; an arrow, or that which resembles an arrow; a dart. Look that the crossbowmen lack not bolts. Sir W. Scott. A fool's bolt is soon shot. Shak.

A piece of heavy ordnance formerly used for throwing stones and other ponderous missiles. It was the earliest kind of cannon. They planted in divers places twelve great bombards, wherewith they threw huge stones into the air, which, falling down into the city, might break down the houses. Knolles.

A humming sound; a booming. To . . . silence the bombilation of guns. Sir T. Browne.

A very singular missile weapon used by the natives of Australia and in some parts of India. It is usually a curved stick of hard wood, from twenty to thirty inches in length, from two to three inches wide, and half or three quarters of an inch thick. When thrown from the hand with a quick rotary motion, it describes ve…

To interrupt; to destroy the continuity of; to dissolve or terminate; as, to break silence; to break one's sleep; to break one's journey. Go, release them, Ariel; My charms I'll break, their senses I'll restore. Shak.

A missile, usually of lead, and round or elongated in form, to be discharged from a rifle, musket, pistol, or other small firearm.

illain Whose bowels suddenly burst out. Shak. We were the first that ever burst Into that silent sea. Coleridge. To burst upon him like an earthquake. Goldsmith.

es regarded as poisonous. Bladder campion, a plant of the Pink family (Cucubalus Behen or Silene inflata), having a much inflated calyx. See Behen. -- Rose campion, a garden plant (Lychnis coronaria) with handsome crimsome crimson flowers.

A kind of type. See Canon. Cannon ball, strictly, a round solid missile of stone or iron made to be fired from a cannon, but now often applied to a missile of any shape, whether solid or hollow, made for cannon. Elongated and cylindrical missiles are sometimes called bolts; hollow ones charged with explosives are prope…

A large South American monkey (Lagothrix Humboldtii), with prehensile tail.

ther parts, covered with a viscid secretion to which small insects adhere. The species of Silene are examples of the catchfly.

Africa, Asia, and Europe. The skin is covered with fine granmulations; the tail is prehensile, and the body is much compressed laterally, giving it a high back.

less thy sons My voice or hands deny, These hands let useful skill forsake, This voice in silence die. Dwight.

A sarcasm by which one is put to silence; anything that can not be answered. [Low] S. Richardson.

Attention to all the facts and circumstances of a case; caution; watchfulness. With silent circumspection, unespied. Milton.

Closemouthed; silent. "Close-tongued treason." Shak.