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That part of the human body which is immediately below the ribs or thorax; the small part of the body between the thorax and hips. Chaucer. I am in the waist two yards about. Shak.

A fluted, or ribbed, board on which clothes are rubbed in washing them.

A plate or thin portion, continuous or perforated, connecting stiffening ribs or flanges, or other parts of an object. Specifically: --

hath to work us woe. Milton. We know what master laid thy keel, What workmen wrought thy ribs of steel. Longfellow.

One of the longitudinal ribs or ridges on the barrel of a capstan or a windless; -- usually in the plural; as, the whelps of a windlass.

ed, or Indian, rhinoceros (Rhinoceros Indicus). See Rhinoceros. (b) The umhofo. -- White ribbon, the distinctive badge of certain organizations for the promotion of temperance or of moral purity; as, the White-ribbon Army. -- White rope (Naut.), untarred hemp rope. -- White rot. (Bot.) (a) Either of several plants,…

A line- or ribbon-shaped material (as wire, string, or bandaging) wound around an object; as, the windings (conducting wires) wound around the armature of an electric motor or generator. Winding engine, an engine employed in mining to draw up buckets from a deep pit; a hoisting engine. -- Winding sheet, a sheet in whi…

; sometimes, any female person. Women are soft, mild pitiful, and flexible. Shak. And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman. Gen. ii. 22. I have observed among all nations that the women ornament themselves more than the men; that, wherever found, they are the same kind, civil, obliging, human…

ing; a wrestling match; a struggle. Whom in a wrestle the giant catching aloft, with a terrible hug broke three of his ribs. Milton.