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asses of Crustacea, including a large number of species, many of them minute. The group embraces several orders; as the Phyllopoda, Ostracoda, Copepoda, and Pectostraca. See Copepoda, Phyllopoda, and Cladocera.

That part which embraces the main action of a play, poem, and the like, and leads on to the catastrophe; -- opposed to protasis.

self with a view to maintain; to make one's own; to take up the cause of; to adopt; to embrace. "He espoused that quarrel." Bacon. Promised faithfully to espouse his cause as soon as he got out of the war. Bp. Burnet.

One who espouses; one who embraces the cause of another or makes it his own.

To inclose within folds or plaitings; to envelop; to infold; to clasp; to embrace. A face folded in sorrow. J. Webster. We will descend and fold him in our arms. Shak.

A board or narrow platfrom upon which one may stand or brace his feet; as:

assured of anything for a truth, without having examined, what is there that he may not embrace for truLocke. Most of our ingenious young men take up some cried-up English poet for their model. Dryden. But let her go for an ungrateful woman. Philips.

istance; obtained by compulsion; effected by force; as, forcible entry or abduction. In embraces of King James . . . forcible and unjust. Swift. Forcible entry and detainer (Law), the entering upon and taking and withholding of land and tenements by actual force and violence, and with a strong hand, to the hindrance of…

To brace by drawing together, as the cords of a drum. Knoght.

olving, brethren; becoming to brothers; brotherly; as, fraternal affection; a fraternal embrace. -- Fra*ter"nal*ly, adv. An abhorred, a cursed, a fraternal war. Milton. Fraternal love and friendship. Addison.

ith; to help one's self to. [Colloq.] -- To sail free (Naut.), to sail with the yards not braced in as sharp as when sailing closehauled, or close to the wind.

A pair of suspenders or braces. [Colloq.] Gallows bird, a person who deserves the gallows. [Colloq.] -- Gallows bitts (Naut.), one of two or more frames amidships on deck for supporting spare spars; -- called also gallows, gallows top, gallows frame, etc. -- Gallows frame. (a) The frame supporting the beam of an engin…

A small horizontal brace or girder.

Characteristic of a goat; goatlike. Give your chaste body up to the embraces Of goatish lust. Massinger. -- Goat"ish*ly, adv. -- Goat"ish*ness, n.

A grappling; close fight or embrace. [Obs.] Spenser.

A gripe or seizure of the hand; a seizure by embrace, or infolding in the arms. "The grasps of love." Shak.

To seize and hold fast; to embrace closely. Wouldst thou gripe both gain and pleasure Robynson (More's Utopia).

To embrace about the neck; to salute; to greet. [Obs.] Each other kissed glad And lovely halst. Spenser.

A nerve or tendon, supposed to brace and sustain the heart. Shak. Sobbing, as if a hearstring broke. Moore.

To press closely within the arms; to clasp to the bosom; to embrace. "And huggen me in his arms." Shak.