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. Some period long past, when clerks engrossed their stiff and formal chirography on more substantial materials. Hawthorne. Laws that may be engrossed on a finger nail. De Quincey.

During eternity; always; forever; for an indefinite period; at all times; -- often used substantively with for. Seek the Lord . . . Seek his face evermore. Ps. cv. 4. And, behold, I am alive for evermore. Rev. i. 18. Which flow from the presence of God for evermore. Tillotson. I evermore did love you, Hermia. Shak.…

, composed of, or resembling, work in filigree; as, a filigree basket. Hence: Fanciful; unsubstantial; merely decorative. You ask for reality, not fiction and filigree work. J. C. Shairp.

Spun so as to be fine; drawn to a fine thread; attenuated; hence, unsubstantial; visionary; as, finespun theories.

Fixed; hence, closely compressed; compact; substantial; hard; solid; -- applied to the matter of bodies; as, firm flesh; firm muscles, firm wood.

Weak; feeble; limp; slight; vain; without strength or solidity; of loose and unsubstantial structure; without reason or plausibility; as, a flimsy argument, excuse, objection. Proud of a vast extent of flimsy lines. Pope. All the flimsy furniture of a country miss's brain. Sheridan.

Something insipid, or not worth having; empty compliment; trash; unsubstantial talk of writing. The flummery of modern criticism. J. Morley.

Like a leaf; thin; unsubstantial. [R.] Sir T. Browne.

Formed in the forehand or fore parts. A substantial, true-bred beast, bravely forehanded. Dryden.

ernal constitution which makes an existing thing to be what it is; -- called essential or substantial form, and contradistinguished from matter; hence, active or formative nature; law of being or activity; subjectively viewed, an idea; objectively, a law.

ncient privileges of a freeman; free and common law; -- an obsolete expression signifying substantially the same as the American expression civil rights. Abbot.

An English freeholder, or substantial householder. [Obs.] Chaucer. The franklin, a small landholder of those days. Sir J. Stephen.

Light, unsubstantial matter. Tusser. Froth insect (Zoöl.), the cuckoo spit or frog hopper; -- called also froth spit, froth worm, and froth fly. -- Froth spit. See Cuckoo spit, under Cuckoo.

Of the nature of froth; light; empty; unsubstantial; as, a frothy speaker or harangue. Tillotson.

Anything vaporlike, unsubstantial, or' airy; idle conceit; vain imagination. A show of fumes and fancies. Bacon.

Growing suddenly, but not substantial or durable.

ucture in common, that in the judgment of competent scientists, they may receive a common substantive name. A genus is not necessarily the lowest definable group of species, for it may often be divided into several subgenera. In proportion as its definition is exact, it is natural genus; if its definition can not be ma…

Any faint shadowy semblance; an unsubstantial image; a phantom; a glimmering; as, not a ghost of a chance; the ghost of an idea. Each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor. Poe.

[Colloq. Eng. & Scot.] -- Good for nothing. (a) Of no value; useless; worthless. (b) Used substantively, an idle, worthless person. My father always said I was born to be a good for nothing. Ld. Lytton. -- Good Friday, the Friday of Holy Week, kept in some churches as a fast, in memoory of our Savior's passion or suffe…

The grievance complained of; the substantial cause of the action; also, in general, the ground or essence of a complaint. Bouvier.