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A pestilence which ravaged Europe and Asia in the fourteenth century.

t coined in England by Henry V., and worth about 8 pence; also, a French coin of the seventeenth century, worth about 4 pence. Nares.

n; a rake. Seest thou not . . . how giddily 'a turns about all the hot bloods between fourteen and five and thirty Shak. It was the morning costume of a dandy or blood. Thackeray.

iform. -- Blue jaundice. See under Jaundice. -- Blue laws, a name first used in the eighteenth century to describe certain supposititious laws of extreme rigor reported to have been enacted in New Haven; hence, any puritanical laws. [U. S.] -- Blue light, a composition which burns with a brilliant blue flame; -- used…

ng to Sir Thomas Bodley, or to the celebrated library at Oxford, founded by him in the sixteenth century.

A ball or skein of thread; a cocoon. [Obs.] Silkworms finish their bottoms in . . . fifteen days. Mortimer.

n a year; an ancient measure of land, of indefinite quantity, but usually estimated at fifteen acres.

A knife with a strong blade from ten to fifteen inches long, and double-edged near the point; -- used as a hunting knife, and formerly as a weapon in the southwestern part of the United States. It was named from its inventor, Colonel James Bowie. Also, by extension, any large sheath knife.

plants), perpetuating its special or distinctive characteristics by inheritance. Twice fifteen thousand hearts of England's breed. Shak. Greyhounds of the best breed. Carpenter.

o Cadmus, a fabulous prince of Thebes, who was said to have introduced into Greece the sixteen simple letters of the alphabet -- Cadmean letters. Cadmean victory, a victory that damages the victors as much as the vanquished; probably referring to the battle in which the soldiers who sprang from the dragon's teeth sown…

See Canteen.

A woman who carries a canteen for soldiers; a vivandière.

the 16th century was a small vessel with broad bows, high, narrow poop, four masts, and lateen sails. Columbus commanded three caravels on his great voyage.

member of a secret political association in Italy, organized in the early part of the nineteenth centry for the purpose of changing the government into a republic.

orn with a caul, which was advertised for sale, in the newspapers, at the low price of fifteen guineas. Dickens.

name. See Agave. -- The Magdeburg Centuries, an ecclesiastical history of the first thirteen centuries, arranged in thirteen volumes, compiled in the 16th century by Protestant scholars at Magdeburg.

game played on a chessboard, by two persons, with two differently colored sets of men, sixteen in each set. Each player has a king, a queen, two bishops, two knights, two castles or rooks, and eight pawns.

ed upon by powerful muscles. A noted American species (C. septendecim) is called the seventeen year locust. Another common species is the dogday cicada.

An Italian of the sixteenth century, esp. a poet or artist.

The sixteenth century, when applied to Italian art or literature; as, the sculpture of the Cinquecento; Cinquecento style.