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In railroads, the bed or foundation on which the superstructure (ties, rails, etc.) rests; in common roads, the whole material laid in place and ready for travel.

ender, hairlike fibers found on the surface of fresh roots. They are prolongations of the superficial cells of the root into minute tubes. Gray. -- Root leaf (Bot.), a radical leaf. See Radical, a., 3 (b). -- Root louse (Zoöl.), any plant louse, or aphid, which lives on the roots of plants, as the Phylloxera of the g…

eges of nobility, but is permitted to discharge all his obligations to his feudal lord or superior by a payment of rent in money or kind and without rendering any personal services.

at which ordinarily occurs; ordinary current, course, or kind. I saw nothing else that is superior to the common run of parks. Walpole. Burns never dreamed of looking down on others as beneath him, merely because he was conscious of his own vast superiority to the common run of men. Prof. Wilson. His whole appearance w…

adult male is black; the female is dark chestnut above, white beneath. -- Sable iron, a superior quality of Russia iron; -- so called because originally stamped with the figure of a sable. -- Sable mouse (Zoöl.), the lemming.

rdotal order was long the ascendency which naturally and properly belongs to intellectual superiority. Macaulay.

A large saltcellar formerly placed near the center of the table. The superior guests were seated above the saltfoot.

Solemn or ceremonious ratification; an official act of a superior by which he ratifies and gives validity to the act of some other person or body; establishment or furtherance of anything by authority to it; confirmation; approbation. The strictest professors of reason have added the sanction of their testimony. I. Wat…

Manifest; -- applied to the two principal superficial veins of the lower limb of man.

e quality or state of being saucy; that which is saucy; impertinent boldness; contempt of superiors; impudence. Your sauciness will jest upon my love. Shak.

Showing impertinent boldness or pertness; transgressing the rules of decorum; treating superiors with contempt; impudent; insolent; as, a saucy fellow. Am I not protector, saucy priest Shak.

Resembling a saurian superficially; as, a sauroid fish.

To perform in a hasty, neglectful, or imperfect manner; to do superficially. [Colloq.] A workman is said to scamp his work when he does it in a superficial, dishonest manner. Wedgwood. Much of the scamping and dawdling complained of is that of men in establishments of good repute. T. Hughes.

growth of a sporozoite or merozoite (in a cell or corpuscle of the host) which segment by superficial cleavage, without encystment or conjugation, into merozoites.

The knowledge of a sciolist; superficial knowledge.

One who knows many things superficially; a pretender to science; a smatterer. These passages in that book were enough to humble the presumption of our modern sciolists, if their pride were not as great as their ignorance. Sir W. Temple. A master were lauded and scolists shent. R. Browning.

Knowing superficially or imperfectly. Howell.

To burn superficially; to parch, or shrivel, the surface of, by heat; to subject to so much heat as changes color and texture without consuming; as, to scorch linen. Summer drouth or singed air never scorch thy tresses fair. Milton.

er; a contemner; specifically, a scoffer at religion. "Great scorners of death." Spenser. Superly he scorneth the scorners: but he giveth grace unto the lowly. Prov. iii. 34.

To cut superficially; to wound; to score. We have scotched the snake, not killed it. Shak. Scotched collops (Cookery), a dish made of pieces of beef or veal cut thin, or minced, beaten flat, and stewed with onion and other condiments; -- called also Scotch collops. [Written also scotcht collops.]