Search the Dictionary

Chief in excellence. [Obs.] The king hath drawn The special head of all the land together. Shak. Special administration (Law), an administration limited to certain specified effects or acts, or one granted during a particular time or the existence of a special cause, as during a controversy respecting the probate of a…

articularly specified. Chitty. Bouvier. Wharton (Law Dict.). Let specialties be therefore drawn between us. Shak.

A machine for drawing and twisting slivers to form rovings.

, as of right ascension and declination, the equator, ecliptic, etc., are conceived to be drawn; an ideal geometrical sphere, with the astronomical and geographical circles in their proper positions on it.

To draw out, and twist into threads, either by the hand or machinery; as, to spin wool, cotton, or flax; to spin goat's hair; to produce by drawing out and twisting a fibrous material. All the yarn she [Penelope] spun in Ulysses' absence did but fill Ithaca full of moths. Shak.

A kind of drawing knife or planing tool for dressing the spokes of wheels, the shells of blocks, and other curved work.

To be extended by drawing or beating; as, some metals spread with difficulty.

A machine for combining and drawing fibers of flax to form a sliver preparatory to spinning.

A noose fastened to an elastic body, and drawn close with a sudden spring, whereby it catches a bird or other animal; a gin; a snare. As a woodcock to mine own springe. Shak.

he springing thereof. Ps. lxv. 10. Springing line of an arch (Arch.), the horizontal line drawn through the junction of the vertical face of the impost with the curve of the intrados; -- called also spring of an arch.

To spring up; to germinate; to spring forward or outward. [Obs.] To sprunt up, to draw one's self up suddenly, as in anger or defiance; to bristle up. [Local, U.S.]

Primarily, a square; hence, a square body of troops; a body of troops drawn up in a square. [R.] Those half-rounding quards Just met, and, closing, stood in squadron joined. Milton.

A horse used in drawing a stage. [Colloq.]

Something set, or offered to view, as an allurement to draw others to any place or purpose; a decoy; a stool pigeon. [Obs.] Still, as he went, he crafty stales did lay. Spenser.

To pour out; to empty; to tap and begin drawing from; as, to start a water cask.

A state of standing or rest; equilibrium. [Obs.] All progression is performed by drawing on or impelling forward some part which was before in station, or at quiet. Sir T. Browne.

Falling in drops; drawn by a still.

uted to the players at the beginning of certain games, as gleek, etc., but which might be drawn from afterward as occasion required; a bank. I must buy the stock; send me good cardings. Beau. & Fl.

ded stomach. Shak. Stomach pump (Med.), a small pump or syringe with a flexible tube, for drawing liquids from the stomach, or for injecting them into it. -- Stomach tube (Med.), a long flexible tube for introduction into the stomach. -- Stomach worm (Zoöl.), the common roundworm (Ascaris lumbricoides) found in the h…

Stool of repentance, the cuttystool. [Scot.] -- Stool pigeon, a pigeon used as a decoy to draw others within a net; hence, a person used as a decoy for others.