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The act of brushing; as, to give one's clothes a brush; a rubbing or grazing with a quick motion; a light touch; as, we got a brush from the wheel as it passed. [As leaves] have with one winter's brush Fell from their boughts. Shak.

To cause to shine; to make smooth and bright; to polish; specifically, to polish by rubbing with something hard and smooth; as, to burnish brass or paper. The frame of burnished steel, that east a glare From far, and seemed to thaw the freezing air. Dryden. Now the village windows blaze, Burnished by the setting sun. C…

ounded end or surface, as of steel, ivory, or agate, used in smoothing or polishing by rubbing. It has a variety of forms adapted to special uses.

An Andalusian dance in three-four time, resembing the bolero. [Sometimes in English spelled cachuca (.] The orchestra plays the cachucha. Logfellow.

A district on the west coast of Africa. Calabar bean, The of a climbing legumious plant (Physostigma venenosum), a native of tropical Africa. It is highly poisonous. It is used to produce contraction of the pupil of the eye; also in tetanus, neuralgia, and rheumatic diseases; -- called also ordeal bean, being used by t…

An alkaloid resembing physostigmine and occurring with it in the calabar bean.

To copy, as a drawing, by rubbing the back of it with red or black chalk, and then passing a blunt style or needle over the lines, so as to leave a tracing on the paper or other thing against which it is laid or held. [Writting also calque]

A gum resembing ordinary camphor, obtained from a tree (Dryobalanops camphora) growing in Sumatra and Borneo; -- called also Malay camphor, camphor of Borneo, or borneol. See Borneol.

racts, will, etc.; legal power or right; competency. Capacity for heat, the power of absorbing heat. Substances differ in the amount of heat requisite to raise them a given number of thermometric degrees, and this difference is the measure of, or depends upon, whzt is called their capacity for heat. See Specific heat,…

Characterized by caviling, or disposed to cavil; quibbing. [R.] -- Cav"il*ous*ly, adv. [R.] -- Cav"il*ous*ness, n. [R.]

To fret and wear by rubbing; as, to chafe a cable. Two slips of parchment which she sewed round it to prevent its being chafed. Sir W. Scott.

The act of rubbing, or wearing by friction; making by rubbing. Chafing dish, a dish or vessel for cooking on the table, or for keeping food warm, either by coals, by a lamp, or by hot water; a portable grate for coals. -- Chafing gear (Naut.), any material used to protect sails, rigging, or the like, at points where t…

fferent directions of the growing tip of the stems of many plants, especially seen in climbing plants.

Circumscribing or tending to circumscribe; marcing the limits or form of.

To ascend by climbing with difficulty. Clambering the walls to eye him. Shak.

The act of one who climbs; ascent by climbing. Warburton.

or diminishing; the practice of clipping the edges of coins. clipping by Englishmen is robbing the honest man who receives clipped money. Locke.

act of covering with a cloak; the act of concealing anything. To take heed of their dissembings and cloakings. Strype.

es of a hatchway frame as distinguished from the transverse head ledges. [Written also combings.]

A leader or chief; a conspicuous person, esp. a rich covetous person. [Obs.] All cobbing country chuffs, which make their bellies and their bags their god, are called rich cobs. Nash.