Search the Dictionary

To assign to some function or office. [R.]

consisting of a cord or chain attached at one end to a fixed point, and having the other passed over a pulley and sustaining a weight, while one or more other weights are suspended from the cord at points between the fixed support and the pulley. -- Funicular polygon (Mech.), the polygonal figure assumed by a cord fas…

To help forward; to promote; to advance; to forward; to help or assist. This binds thee, then, to further my design. Dryden. I should nothing further the weal public. Robynsom (More's Utopia).

A tumult; a bustle; unnecessary or annoying ado about trifles. Byron. Zealously, assiduously, and with a minimum of fuss or noise Carlyle.

An openwork frame, as of poles, filled with stones and sunk, to assist in forming a bar dyke, etc., as in harbor improvement.

A supposed rare metallic element, with a characteristic spectrum, found associated with yttrium and other rare metals. Its individuality and properties have not yet been determined.

A splendid assemblage of persons or things.

Anything extremely bitter; bitterness; rancor. He hath . . . compassed me with gall and travail. Lam. iii. 5. Comedy diverted without gall. Dryden.

A number going in company; hence, a company, or a number of persons associated for a particular purpose; a group of laborers under one foreman; a squad; as, a gang of sailors; a chain gang; a gang of thieves.

The mineral or earthy substance associated with metallic ore.

opening in anything made by breaking or parting; as, a gap in a fence; an opening for a passage or entrance; an opening which implies a breach or defect; a vacant space or time; a hiatus; a mountain pass. Miseries ensued by the opening of that gap. Knolles. It would make a great gap in your own honor. Shak. Gap lathe…

A house connected or associated with a gate.

o collect, as a number of separate things, into one place, or into one aggregate body; to assemble; to muster; to congregate. And Belgium's capital had gathered them Her beauty and her chivalry. Byron. When he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together. Matt. ii. 4.

A crowd; an assembly; a congregation.

The mallet of the presiding officer in a legislative body, public assembly, court, masonic body, etc.

A meeting; -- used in combination, as, Witenagemote, an assembly of the wise men.

A classification of nouns, primarily according to sex; and secondarily according to some fancied or imputed quality associated with sex. Gender is a grammatical distinction and applies to words only. Sex is natural distinction and applies to living objects. R. Morris.

The body of those who are of the same genealogical rank or remove from an ancestor; the mass of beings living at one period; also, the average lifetime of man, or the ordinary period of time at which one rank follows another, or father is succeeded by child, usually assumed to be one third of a century; an age. This i…

condition; -- used esp. in the plural (= citizens; people), in addressing men in popular assemblies, etc.

A class of objects divided into several subordinate species; a class more extensive than a species; a precisely defined and exactly divided class; one of the five predicable conceptions, or sorts of terms.