Search the Dictionary

A lattice or grating. The grille which formed part of the gate. L. Oliphant.

The projecting solid angle formed by the meeting of two vaults, growing more obtuse as it approaches the summit.

A ring formed by twisting on itself a single strand of an unlaid rope; also, a metallic eyelet in or for a sail or a mailbag. Sometimes written grummet.

A man recently married, or about to be married; a bridegroom. Dryden. Groom porter, formerly an officer in the English royal household, who attended to the furnishing of the king's lodgings and had certain privileges.

A furrow, channel, or long hollow, such as may be formed by cutting, molding, grinding, the wearing force of flowing water, or constant travel; a depressed way; a worn path; a rut.

Like the figures found in ancient grottoes; grottolike; wildly or strangely formed; whimsical; extravagant; of irregular forms and proportions; fantastic; ludicrous; antic. "Grotesque design." Dryden. "Grotesque incidents." Macaulay.

ennial herb (Veronica officinalis) with small blue flowers, common in Europe and America, formerly thought to have curative properties. -- Ground of the heavens (Astron.), the surface of any part of the celestial sphere upon which the stars may be regarded as projected. -- Ground hemlock (Bot.), the yew (Taxus baccat…

A spectator in the pit of a theater, which formerly was on the ground, and without floor or benches. No comic buffoon to make the groundlings laugh. Coleridge.

Formerly, a kind of beer or ale. [Eng.]

A tool with a hardened steel point, formerly used instead of a diamond for cutting glass.

A strongly alkaline base, CN3H5, formed by the oxidation of guanin, and also obtained combined with methyl in the decomposition of creatin. Boiled with dilute sulphuric acid, it yields urea and ammonia.

The pin of iron fastened in the end of a wooden shaft or axle, on which it turns; formerly, any journal, or pivot, or bearing, as the pintle and eye of a hinge, but esp. the end journal of a horizontal.

lot. Byron. He shall, by thy revenging hand, at once receive the just guerdon of all his former villainies. Knolles.

An opinion as to anything, formed without sufficient or decisive evidence or grounds; an attempt to hit upon the truth by a random judgment; a conjecture; a surmise. A poet must confess His art 's like physic -- but a happy guess. Dryden.

An association of men belonging to the same class, or engaged in kindred pursuits, formed for mutual aid and protection; a business fraternity or corporation; as, the Stationers' Guild; the Ironmongers' Guild. They were originally licensed by the government, and endowed with special privileges and authority.…

rial; unacquainted (with). Such gardening tools, as art, yet rude, Guiltless of fire, had formed. Milton. -- Guilt"less*ly, adv. -- Guilt"less*ness, n.

A district on the west coast of Africa (formerly noted for its export of gold and slaves) after which the Guinea fowl, Guinea grass, Guinea peach, etc., are named.

peaking or acting; custom; fashion; manner; behavior; mien; mode; practice; -- often used formerly in such phrases as: at his own guise; that is, in his own fashion, to suit himself. Chaucer. The swain replied, "It never was our guise To slight the poor, or aught humane despise." Pope.

Any narrow channel or groove; as, a gutter formed by erosion in the vent of a gun from repeated firing. Gutter member (Arch.), an architectural member made by treating the outside face of the gutter in a decorative fashion, or by crowning it with ornaments, regularly spaced, like a diminutive battlement. -- Gutter pla…

Of or pertaining to the throat; formed in the throat; relating to, or characteristic of, a sound formed in the throat. Children are occasionally born with guttural swellings. W. Guthrie. In such a sweet, guttural accent. Landor.