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binet, particularly one intended for the display of rich vessels or plate, and consisting chiefly of open shelves for that purpose.

A plant of various species, chiefly cruciferous. The leaves have a moderately pungent taste, and are used as a salad and antiscorbutic.

A kind of stiff cloth, used chiefly by women, for underskirts, to expand the gown worn over it; -- so called because originally made of hair.

of one or more large ones supported in a horizontal position upon others. They are found chiefly in countris inhabited by the ancient Celts, and are of a period anterior to the introduction of Christianity into these countries.

A furnace for melting iron or other metals in large quantity, -- used chiefly in foundries and steel works.

A small kind of seedless raisin, imported from the Levant, chiefly from Zante and Cephalonia; -- used in cookery.

A complex derivative of cyanogen, regarded as an acid, and known chiefly in its salts; -- called also hydromellonic acid.

or convex flower cluster, of the centrifugal or determinate type, differing from a corymb chiefly in the order of the opening of the blossoms.

Pertaining to, consisting chiefly or wholly of, dactyls; as, dactylic verses.

A city of Syria. Damascus blade, a sword or scimiter, made chiefly at Damascus, having a variegated appearance of watering, and proverbial for excellence. -- Damascus iron, or Damascus twist, metal formed of thin bars or wires of iron and steel elaborately twisted and welded together; used for making gun barrels, etc.…

to direct air currents and prevent accumulation of gas. -- Fire damp, a damp consisting chiefly of light carbureted hydrogen; -- so called from its tendence to explode when mixed with atmospheric air and brought into contact with flame.

fact or principle granted; that upon which an inference or an argument is based; -- used chiefly in the plural. Any writer, therefore, who . . . furnishes us with data sufficient to determine the time in which he wrote. Priestley.

To cut off; to take away or deduct a part of; -- used chiefly of money, accounts, rents, income, etc. To show what may be practicably and safely defalcated from the [the estimates]. Burke.

thed bill; -- applied to a group of passerine birds, having the bill notched, and feeding chiefly on insects, as the shrikes and vireos. See Illust. (N) under Beak.

A minute portion; one of the small parts; a particular; an item; - - used chiefly in the plural; as, the details of a scheme or transaction. The details of the campaign in Italy. Motley.

ned by the inversion of cane sugar or sucrose, and hence called invert sugar. Dextrose is chiefly obtained by the action of heat and acids on starch, and hence called also starch sugar. It is also formed from starchy food by the action of the amylolytic ferments of saliva and pancreatic juice.

The elongation, or angular distance from the sun; -- said chiefly of the inferior planets. [R.]

e hair) to hang loosely or disorderly; to spread or throw (the hair) in disorder; -- used chiefly in the passive participle. With garments rent and hair disheveled, Wringing her hands and making piteous moan. Spenser.

he natural or proper one; to stain; to discolor; to sully; to tarnish; to defile; -- used chiefly in poetry. "Distained with dirt and blood." Spenser. [She] hath . . . distained her honorable blood. Spenser. The worthiness of praise distains his worth. Shak.

A morbid state of the animal system; indisposition; malady; disorder; -- at present chiefly applied to diseases of brutes; as, a distemper in dogs; the horse distemper; the horn distemper in cattle. They heighten distempers to diseases. Suckling.