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ies of snapping beetles, or elaters; -- so called from their slenderness and the uncommon hardness of the integument. Wireworms are sometimes very destructive to the roots of plants. Called also wire grub.

originally said of liquids. Fig., weak-minded; spiritless. A weak wishy-washy man who had hardly any mind of his own. A. Trollope.

rapacious, or destructive person or thing; especially, want; starvation; as, they toiled hard to keep the wolf from the door.

The substance of trees and the like; the hard fibrous substance which composes the body of a tree and its branches, and which is covered by the bark; timber. "To worship their own work in wood and stone for gods." Milton.

A process in photographic printing, in which a relief pattern in gelatin, which has been hardened after certain operations, is pressed upon a plate of lead or other soft metal. An intaglio impression in thus produced, from which pictures may be directly printed, but by a slower process than in common printing.…

ertaining to, or characteristic of, working days, or workdays; everyday; hence, plodding; hard-working. O, how full of briers in this working-day world. Shak.

ore, or on rocks, or by being disabled or sunk by the force of winds or waves; shipwreck. Hard and obstinate As is a rock amidst the raging floods, 'Gainst which a ship, of succor desolate, Doth suffer wreck, both of herself and goods. Spenser.

To twist and compress; to turn and strain with violence; to writhe; to squeeze hard; to pinch; as, to wring clothes in washing. "Earnestly wringing Waverley's hand." Sir W. Scott. "Wring him by the nose." Shak. [His steed] so sweat that men might him wring. Chaucer. The king began to find where his shoe did wring him.…

etween the hand and the arm; the carpus. See Carpus. He took me by the wrist, and held me hard. Shak.

Bearing fruit which becomes hard or woody.

s are cultivated. Chinese yam, a plant (Dioscorea Batatas) with a long and slender tuber, hardier than most of the other species. -- Wild yam. (a) A common plant (Dioscorea villosa) of the Eastern United States, having a hard and knotty rootstock. (b) An orchidaceous plant (Gastrodia sesamoides) of Australia and Tasma…

One of an active and hardy body of soldiers in the French service, originally Arabs, but now composed of Frenchmen who wear the Arab dress.