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To move suddenly, or be excited, on feeling alarm; to start. Why shrinks the soul Back on herself, and startles at destruction Addison.

attitude. Their characters are mostly statuesque even in this respect, that they have no background. Hare.

ng, (to stave) to interpose with the staff, doubtless to stop the bear; (to tail) to hold back the dog by the tail. Nares.

d forward are called fore-and-aft stays; those which lead to the vessel's side are called backstays. See Illust. of Ship. In stays, or Hove in stays (Naut.), in the act or situation of staying, or going about from one tack to another. R. H. Dana, Jr. -- Stay holes (Naut.), openings in the edge of a staysail through wh…

le chase; also, a horse trained to run in a steeple chase. -- Steeple engine, a vertical back-acting steam engine having the cylinder beneath the crosshead. -- Steeple house, a church. [Obs.] Jer. Taylor.

g.: To move mentally; to go in imagination. They are stepping almost three thousand years back into the remotest antiquity. Pope. To step aside, to walk a little distance from the rest; to retire from company. -- To step forth, to move or come forth. -- To step in or into. (a) To walk or advance into a place or state…

(b) A stern chaser. -- Stern chaser (Naut.), a cannon placed in a ship's stern, pointing backward, and intended to annoy a ship that is in pursuit. -- Stern fast (Naut.), a rope used to confine the stern of a ship or other vessel, as to a wharf or buoy. -- Stern frame (Naut.), the framework of timber forms the stern…

The movement of a ship backward, or with her stern foremost.

an end to, by intervening; hence, to arbitrate. [Obs.] They ran to him, and, pulling him back by force, stickled that unnatural fray. Sir P. Sidney.

one of numerous species of small fishes of the genus Gasterosteus and allied genera. The back is armed with two or more sharp spines. They inhabit both salt and brackish water, and construct curious nests. Called also sticklebag, sharpling, and prickleback.

Obstinate. J. H. Newman.

A single seat with three or four legs and without a back, made in various forms for various uses.

stooping, or bending the body forward; inclination forward; also, an habitual bend of the back and shoulders.

ife, The trophied arches, storied halls, invade. Pope. Can storied urn, or animated bust, Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath Gray.

rist; to strain a muscle. Prudes decayed about may track, Strain their necks with looking back. Swift.

ng sleeves, which are closed at the ends, confining the hands, and may be tied behind the back.

Backward; slow. [Obs.] Who, loving the effect, would not be strange In favoring the cause. Beau. & Fl.

ry crab (Zoöl.), a small European spider crab (Eurynome aspera); -- so called because the back is covered with pink tubercles. -- Strawberry fish (Zoöl.), the amadavat. -- Strawberry geranium (Bot.), a kind of saxifrage (Saxifraga sarmentosa) having reniform leaves, and producing long runners like those of the strawb…

ice. -- Stress of weather, constraint imposed by continued bad weather; as, to be driven back to port by stress of weather. -- To lay stress upon, to attach great importance to; to emphasize. "Consider how great a stress is laid upon this duty." Atterbury. -- To put stress upon, or To put to a stress, to strain.…

ck strikes as the door is closed. (b) A part of the centering of an arch, which is driven back to loosen the centering in striking it.