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A small knife with a thin, keen blade, -- used by surgeons, and in dissecting.

One who, or that which, scalps.

a. & n. from Scalp. Scalping iron (Surg.), an instrument used in scraping foul and carious bones; a raspatory. -- Scalping knife, a knife used by north American Indians in scalping.

Shaped like a chisel; as, the scalpriform incisors of rodents.

One of a family of beetles having the maxillary palpi terminating in a hatchet-shaped joint.

A scamp; an Irish term for a good-for-nothing fellow; -- often used in good-humored contempt or ridicule. [Colloq.]

Inhabiting the somewhat high slopes and summits of mountains, but considerably below the snow line.

One of a group of carabid beetles having slender palpi.

The act of enticing by soft words; enticement. [Obs.]

Situated above, or on the anterior side of, the scapula.

A genus of small insectivores including the common European mole.

Being on the farther side of the Alps in regard to Rome, that is, on the north or west side of the Alps; of or pertaining to the region or the people beyond the Alps; as, transalpine Gaul; -- opposed to cisalpine. " Transalpine garbs." Beau. & Fl.

Destitute of a palp.

The first letter of the English and of many other alphabets. The capital A of the alphabets of Middle and Western Europe, as also the small letter (a), besides the forms in Italic, black letter, etc., are all descended from the old Latin A, which was borrowed from the Greek Alpha, of the same form; and this was made fr…

The first three letters of the alphabet, used for the whole alphabet.

One who is learning the alphabet; hence, a tyro.

Pertaining to, or formed by, the letters of the alphabet; alphabetic; hence, rudimentary. Abecedarian psalms, hymns, etc., compositions in which (like the 119th psalm in Hebrew) distinct portions or verses commence with successive letters of the alphabet. Hook.

A Hebrew poem in which the lines or stanzas begin with the letters of the alphabet in regular order (as Psalm cxix.). See Abecedarian. Double acrostic, a species of enigma, in which words are to be guessed whose initial and final letters form other words.

Opposite. "Calpe's adverse height." Byron.

An impalpable powder. [Obs.]