Search the Dictionary

A small cavity in a coral, shell, or fossil

iferous plants; madwort. The sweet alyssum (A. maritimum), cultivated for bouquets, bears small, white, sweet- scented flowers.

The strawberry finch, a small Indian song bird (Estrelda amandava), commonly caged and kept for fighting. The female is olive brown; the male, in summer, mostly crimson; -- called also red waxbill. [Written also amaduvad and avadavat.]

Circuit or compass. His great parts did not live within a small ambit. Milward.

A peculiar small siliceous spicule having a denticulated wheel at each end; -- found in freshwater sponges.

A variety of trap or basaltic rock, containing small cavities, occupied, wholly or in part, by nodules or geodes of different minerals, esp. agates, quartz, calcite, and the zeolites. When the imbedded minerals are detached or removed by decomposition, it is porous, like lava.

ake of the Boa family (Eunectes murinus), which lives near rivers, and preys on birds and small mammals. The name is also applied to a similar large serpent (Python tigris) of Ceylon.

t anchor, anchored. -- To back an anchor, to increase the holding power by laying down a small anchor ahead of that by which the ship rides, with the cable fastened to the crown of the latter to prevent its coming home. -- To cast anchor, to drop or let go an anchor to keep a ship at rest. -- To cat the anchor, to h…

A small fish, about three inches in length, of the Herring family (Engraulis encrasicholus), caught in vast numbers in the Mediterranean, and pickled for exportation. The name is also applied to several allied species.

A small ulcerous swelling, coming suddenly; also, a whitlow. [Obs.] Boucher.

A small gold coin formerly current in England; a half angel. Eng. Cyc.

A sort of small, rich cheese, made in Normandy.

A small moth (Gelechia cerealella) which is very destructive to wheat and other grain. The larva eats out the inferior of the grain, leaving only the shell.

A small lemuroid mammal (Arctocebus Calabarensis) of Africa. It has only a rudimentary tail.

A small animal, as a fly, spider, etc. [Obs.] Ray.

chylostoma duodenale, Uncinaria (subgenus Necator) americana, or allied nematodes, in the small intestine. When present in large numbers they produce a severe anæmia by sucking the blood from the intestinal walls. Called also miner's anæmia, tunnel disease, brickmaker's anæmia, Egyptian chlorosis.

To join or add, as a smaller thing to a greater. He annexed a province to his kingdom. Johnson.

A small, flat fillet, encircling a column, etc., used by itself, or with other moldings. It is used, several times repeated, under the Doric capital.

A small wild ox of Celebes (Anoa depressicornis), allied to the buffalo, but having long nearly straight horns.

A mineral of the feldspar family, commonly occurring in small glassy crystals, also a constituent of some igneous rocks. It is a lime feldspar. See Feldspar.