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The act or practice of drining the surface of land.

Of or pertaining to the ornamental cutting and trimming of trees, hedges, etc.; practicing ornamental gardening. [R.] "The topiarian artist." Sir W. Scott. All the pedantries of the topiarian art. C. Kingsley.

ten discourse or dissertation, generally of short extent; a short treatise, especially on practical religion. The church clergy at that writ the best collection of tracts against popery that ever appeared. Swift. Tracts for the Times. See Tractarian.

Capable of being handled; palpable; practicable; feasible; as, tractable measures. [Obs.] Holder. --Tract"a*ble*ness, n. -- Tract"a/bly, adv.

Course; custom; practice; occupation; employment. [Obs.] "The right trade of religion." Udall. There those five sisters had continual trade. Spenser. Long did I love this lady, Long was my travel, long my trade to win her. Massinger. Thy sin's not accidental but a trade. Shak.

Professional; practiced. [Obs.] Shak.

The unwritten or oral delivery of information, opinions, doctrines, practices, rites, and customs, from father to son, or from ancestors to posterity; the transmission of any knowledge, opinions, or practice, from forefathers to descendants by oral communication, without written memorials.

nger miles and ton miles in a railroad's transportation for a given period; -- a term and practice of restricted or erroneous usage.

To teach and form by practice; to educate; to exercise; to discipline; as, to train the militia to the manual exercise; to train soldiers to the use of arms. Our trained bands, which are the trustiest and most proper strength of a free nation. Milton. The warrior horse here bred he's taught to train. Dryden.…

s guilt. Most men's heads had been intoxicated with imaginations of plots and treasonable practices. Clarendon.

al of the dead by placing the corpse among the branches of a tree or in a hollow trunk, a practice among many primitive peoples.

Given to tricks; practicing deception; trickish; knavish.

The practice of paying wages in goods instead of money; -- called also truck system. Garden truck, vegetables raised for market. [Colloq.] [U. S.] -- Truck farming, raising vegetables for market: market gardening. [Colloq. U. S.]

The practice of bartering goods; exchange; barter; truck. The truckage of perishing coin. Milton.

The practice of speaking what is true; freedom from falsehood; veracity. If this will not suffice, it must appear That malice bears down truth. Shak.

The practice of seeking after, and hanging on, noblemen, or persons of quality, especially in English universities. [Cant, Eng.]

prising the most important Brazilian tribes. Agriculture, pottery, and stone working were practiced by them at the time of the conquest. The Tupi and the Guarani were originally the most powerful of the stock, which is hence also called Tupi-Guaranian.

A fall off the ladder at the gallows; a hanging; -- so called from the practice of causing the criminal to stand on a ladder which was turned over, so throwing him off, when the signal was given. [Obs.]

A person who practices athletic or gymnastic exercises.

The act, practice, or art of catching turtles. Marryat.